taper

Noun

taper (plural tapers)

2. A slender wax candle.
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 311, line 157:

     Strike on the Tinder, hoa: / Giue me a Taper: […]

   • 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 376, column 2:

     Take not away the Taper, leaue it burning:

   • 1813 August 13, Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Isaac McPherson:

     He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me.

   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIX, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 160:

     The red glare of the tapers flung a strange unnatural hue on the painted windows of the little Gothic chapel, where none slept save the noble of name, and the high of blood—purple and crimson, the colours mingled together in fantastic combinations, till the rainbow-hued figures seemed to move with supernatural life.

   • 1913, Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Change:

     Love used to carry a bow, you know,
     But now he carries a taper;
     It is either a length of wax aglow,
     Or a twist of lighted paper.

3. (by extension) A small light.
4. A tapering form; gradual diminution of thickness and/or cross section in an elongated object.

   Hyponym: conicality

   the taper of a spire

   The legs of the table had a slight taper to them.

   • 2005, Michael Ellis, Apollo Rises, page 15:

     Her hair hangs over her ears and flows to a taper at the back of her neck where it is held in place with a wide and circular black clasp.

5. The portion of an object with such a form.

   ensuring the cleanliness of the taper of a machine tool spindle or of a tool shank

6. A thin stick used for lighting candles, either a wax-coated wick or a slow-burning wooden rod.
7. A cone-shaped item for stretching the hole for an ear gauge (piercing).
8. Gradual reduction over time.

   a drug taper

Verb

taper (third-person singular simple present tapers, present participle tapering, simple past and past participle tapered)

1. (transitive) To make thinner or narrower at one end.
   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 3”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

     Though true cylinders without — within, the villainous green goggling glasses deceitfully tapered downwards to a cheating bottom.

2. (intransitive) To become thinner or narrower at one end.
3. (ambitransitive) To diminish gradually.
   • 2022 February 11, Anders Sørensen, Karsten Juhl Jørgensen, Klaus Munkholm, “Clinical practice guideline recommendations on tapering and discontinuing antidepressants for depression: a systematic review”, in Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology‎, volume 12, →DOI:

     Current major clinical practice guidelines provide little support for clinicians wishing to help patients discontinue or taper antidepressants in terms of mitigating and managing withdrawal symptoms.

4. (intransitive) (of a central bank) To tighten monetary policy.

Adjective

taper

1. Tapered; narrowing to a point.

Noun

taper (plural tapers)

1. (weaving) One who operates a tape machine.
2. Someone who works with tape or tapes.

Conjugation

Derived terms

See also

• frapper
• cogner

Descendants

• English: taper

References

• “tāper, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Derived terms

• taper raide (“to hit hard”)

Noun

taper m (definite singular taperen, indefinite plural tapere, definite plural taperne)

1. a loser

Verb

taper

1. present tense of tape (“to lose”)

Noun

taper m

1. indefinite plural of tape

Verb

taper

1. present tense of tape (“to tape”)