TAPERING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does tapering mean? 

• TAPERING (noun)
  The noun TAPERING has 1 sense:

1. the act of gradually lowering the size or amount

  Familiarity information: TAPERING used as a noun is very rare.

• TAPERING (adjective)
  The adjective TAPERING has 2 senses:

1. becoming gradually narrower

2. gradually decreasing until little remains

  Familiarity information: TAPERING used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TAPERING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of gradually lowering the size or amount

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

the doctor prescribed the tapering of the dose

Hypernyms ("tapering" is a kind of...):

lowering (the act of causing to become less)

Derivation:

taper (diminish gradually)

• TAPERING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Becoming gradually narrower

Synonyms:

narrowing; tapered; tapering

Context example:

trousers with tapered legs

Similar:

narrow (not wide)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Gradually decreasing until little remains

Synonyms:

dwindling; tapering; tapering off

Similar:

decreasing (becoming less or smaller)

 Context examples 

An elongated, tapering, generally thick-walled sclerenchyma cell of vascular plants; its walls may or may not be lignified.

(Fiber, Food and Drug Administration)

The cells have broad, non-tapering processes radiating towards a central blood vessel.

(Astroblastoma, NCI Thesaurus)

EXAMPLE(S): 200-400; NOTE(S): This is used for more complex dosages such as scaling and tapering doses, uncertain dosage ranges, differing morning and evening doses and other instructions that can't be expressed with a simple PQ.

(Performed Substance Administration Active Ingredient Dose Description, NCI Thesaurus/BRIDG)

Alleyne, on the other hand, must trust for his defence to his quick eye and active foot—for his sword, though keen as a whetstone could make it, was of a light and graceful build with a narrow, sloping pommel and a tapering steel.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

NOTE(S): This is used for more complex dosages such as scaling and tapering doses, uncertain dosage ranges, differing morning and evening doses and other instructions that can't be expressed with a simple PQ.

(Performed Substance Administration Dose Description, NCI Thesaurus/BRIDG)