taper

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈteɪpə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈteɪpɚ/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (General Australian):

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• Rhymes: -eɪpə(ɹ)
• Homophone: tapir

From Middle English taper, from Old English tapor (“taper, candle, wick of a lamp”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Latin papyrus (“papyrus", used in Mediaeval times to mean "wick of a candle”). If so, it is a doublet of papyrus. Alternatively, of Celtic origin related to Irish tapar (“taper”), Welsh tampr (“a taper, torch”); further compare Sanskrit तपती (tápati, “(it) warms, gives out heat, is hot; (it) heats”). More at tepid. First attested before the 12th c.

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. (machining) Ellipsis of machine taper.
7. (chiefly historical) A long wick or thin stick used for transferring flames to candles, now usually chemically-treated to burn particularly slowly.

   Synonyms: (archaic) spill, (obsolete) match, (Scottish, obsolete) spunk

8. A cone-shaped item for stretching the hole for an ear gauge (piercing).
9. (figurative) Gradual reduction over time.

   a drug taper

• (thin stick used to transfer flame): sulfur match (obsolete)

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.
   • 2025 October 19, “A Tower on Billionaires’ Row Is Full of Cracks. Who’s to Blame?”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:

     Like other supertall towers, 432 Park relies on the counterweight system to address the forces of wind and reduce the feeling of swaying for residents. But unlike many other supertall towers that are tiered or taper toward the top, 432 Park is rectangular, making it less aerodynamic.

     (Can we archive this URL?)

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^[2], 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, finance, of a central bank) To tighten monetary policy.

• narrow

• taper off

• → Swedish: tapera

taper

1. Tapered; narrowing to a point.

From tape + -er.

taper (plural tapers)

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

• Peart, Petra, apert, apter, parte, pater, peart, petar, petra, prate, preta, reapt, repat, retap, trape, treap

taper

1. present of tape

Inherited from Middle French taper, from Old French tapper, taper (“to tap”), of Germanic origin, from Frankish *tappōn, *dabbōn (“to strike”) or from Middle Low German tappen, tapen (“to tap, rap, strike”). Related to German tappen (“to grope, fumble”), Dutch deppen (“to dab”), Icelandic tappa, tapsa, tæpta (“to tap”). Related to dab.

• IPA^(key): /ta.pe/

• Audio (Paris):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Audio (France (Lyon)):

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• Audio (France (Somain)):

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• Rhymes: -e
• Homophones: tapai, tapé, tapée, tapées, tapés, tapez

taper

1. (transitive) to slap, knock, beat
2. (transitive) to type (use a keyboard or typewriter)
3. (transitive, familiar) to ask (someone) for money, to ask to borrow some money from
4. (intransitive) to hit, to beat, to rap [with sur]
5. (intransitive) to beat down (of the sun); to go to one's head (of wine etc.)
6. (intransitive, slang) to stink, pong, reek
7. (reflexive, slang) to put away (a meal etc.)

   Je me suis tapé un bon petit hamburger hier soir.

   I put away a good, tiny hamburger last night.

8. (reflexive, vulgar, slang) to fuck (have sex)

   Il s'est tapé la fille de son patron.

   He fucked his boss' daughter.

9. (reflexive) to put up with

   J'ai dû me taper trois heures d'embouteillage pour rejoindre l'aéroport.

   I had to put up with three hours of traffic jam to get to the airport.

• frapper
• cogner

• “taper”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012
• “taper”, in Dictionnaire français en ligne Larousse

• parte, pâtre, prêta, tarpé

Borrowed from English taper, from Middle English taper, from Old English tapor (“taper, candle, wick of a lamp”), of uncertain origin.

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ˈtapər/ [ˈt̪a.pər]
• Rhymes: -apər
• Syllabification: ta‧per

tapêr (plural taper-taper)

1. (road transport) taper, a tapering form; gradual diminution of thickness and/or cross section in an elongated object
2. (pharmacology) taper; gradual reduction over time

   Synonym: pengurangan

• “taper”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

• tapre, tapyr, tapir, tapor, tapour, tapur, tapper

From Old English tapor, possibly from Latin papȳrus (if so, a doublet of papirus).

• IPA^(key): /ˈtaːpər/

taper (plural tapres)

1. taper (thin candle)

• English: taper

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

• Audio (Jersey):

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taper (gerund tap'thie)

1. (Jersey, onomatopoeia) to hit, knock

• taper raide (“to hit hard”)

From tape (“to lose”) +‎ -er.

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

1. a loser

• tapar (Nynorsk)

taper

1. present tense of tape (“to lose”)

taper m

1. indefinite plural of tape

taper

1. present tense of tape (“to tape”)

• “taper” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “taper” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

• paret, parte, pater, patre, Petra, prate, rapet, rapte

taper

1. present of tape (to lose)

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): /ta.pe/

taper

1. to throw