Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A small or very slender candle.
- noun A long wax-coated wick used to light candles or gas lamps.
- noun A source of feeble light.
- noun A gradual decrease in thickness or width of an elongated object.
- noun A gradual decrease, as in action or force.
- intransitive verb To become gradually narrower or thinner toward one end.
- intransitive verb To diminish or lessen gradually. Often used with off.
- intransitive verb To make thinner or narrower at one end.
- intransitive verb To make smaller gradually.
- adjective Gradually decreasing in size toward a point.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A gradual decrease of power or capacity.
- noun A candle, especially a very slender candle; any device for giving light by the agency of a wick coated with combustible matter.
- Long and becoming slenderer toward the point; becoming small toward one end.
- Diminished; reduced.
- To become taper; become gradually slenderer; grow less in diameter; diminish in one direction.
- To diminish; grow gradually less.
- To spring up in or as in a tall, tapering form.
- To stop slowly or by degrees; cease gradually.
- To cause to taper; make gradually smaller, especially in diameter; cause to diminish toward a point.
- noun Tapering form; gradual diminution of thickness in an elongated object; that which possesses a tapering form: as, the taper of a spire.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Regularly narrowed toward the point; becoming small toward one end; conical; pyramidical.
- noun A small wax candle; a small lighted wax candle; hence, a small light.
- noun A tapering form; gradual diminution of thickness in an elongated object.
- transitive verb To make or cause to taper.
- intransitive verb To become gradually smaller toward one end.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun weaving One who operates a tape machine.
- noun Someone who works with tape or tapes.
- noun A
slender wax candle ; a small lighted wax candle; hence, a small light. - noun A tapering form; gradual diminution of thickness and/or cross section in an elongated object
- verb transitive To make
thinner ornarrower at one end. - verb intransitive To
diminish gradually.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb diminish gradually
- noun a convex shape that narrows toward a point
- noun stick of wax with a wick in the middle
- noun a loosely woven cord (in a candle or oil lamp) that draws fuel by capillary action up into the flame
- noun the property possessed by a shape that narrows toward a point (as a wedge or cone)
- verb give a point to
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The deacon lights a taper from the Easter fire, and presents it to the priest, who uses it to light the Paschal candle.
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People often ask me whether I believe that cutting the hair and singeing the ends with a lighted taper is beneficial for the growth.
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“This one,” he says, reaching into a plastic bin that at elBulli is called a taper an abbreviation and approximate phonetic rendering of Tupperware, “has nothing to do with this one.”
The Sorcerer’s Apprentices Lisa Abend 2011
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“This one,” he says, reaching into a plastic bin that at elBulli is called a taper an abbreviation and approximate phonetic rendering of Tupperware, “has nothing to do with this one.”
The Sorcerer’s Apprentices Lisa Abend 2011
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The scandal continues as the identity of the secret taper is debated and the existence of more secret video is speculated on.
Boing Boing: January 27, 2002 - February 2, 2002 Archives 2002
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A lighted taper is put into the hand of each lady, and a procession was formed, two by two, which marched all through the house, the corridors and walls of which were all decorated with evergreens and lamps, the whole party singing the Litanies.
Life in Mexico, During a Residence of Two Years in That Country Frances Erskine Inglis 1843
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Digg For three days after death hair and fingernails continue to grow but phone calls taper off.
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"For three days after death hair and fingernails continue to grow but phone calls taper off."
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"For three days after death hair and fingernails continue to grow but phone calls taper off."
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Digg For three days after death hair and fingernails continue to grow but phone calls taper off.
oroboros commented on the word taper
Repat in reverse.
November 2, 2007