Idiom
taper off
Meaning
To diminish or lessen gradually; to become or make smaller, slower, quieter, etc.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“The rain started to taper off in the afternoon.”
“The doctor told me to taper off my medication slowly rather than stopping it all at once.”
“As the excitement of the festival began to taper off, the crowd slowly drifted away into the quiet night.”
Examples
simple
“The rain started to taper off in the afternoon.”
contextual
“The doctor told me to taper off my medication slowly rather than stopping it all at once.”
complex
“As the excitement of the festival began to taper off, the crowd slowly drifted away into the quiet night.”
Origin
From *taper* and *off*. The term functions as a phrasal verb, recorded as a development of the noun *taper*, a slender candle that narrows toward its tip.
Key words
- Updated