taper off

verb

tapered off; tapering off; tapers off

: taper

housing starts tapered off in the fall

Synonyms

• abate
• de-escalate
• decline
• decrease
• die (away or down or out)
• diminish
• drain (away)
• drop (off)
• dwindle
• ease
• ebb
• fall
• fall away
• lessen
• let up
• lower
• moderate
• pall
• phase down
• ratchet (down)
• rachet (down)
• recede
• relent
• remit
• shrink
• subside
• taper
• wane

Examples of taper off in a Sentence

at this time of the year, light begins to taper off a little earlier each day

Recent Examples on the Web

Cook said not everyone will be able to taper off the medication, so some people will likely end up taking it indefinitely. —Ashley Capoot, CNBC, 12 Sep. 2024

The heaviest snow will shift to areas south east of Indianapolis through 8 p.m. The winter storm is expected to bring 2-4 inches of accumulations across Central Indiana and taper off Friday mid-evening. —Jake Allen, The Indianapolis Star, 15 Feb. 2024

Dupré added that many athletes turned to social content creation given the rare down time that came with tapering off workout routines ahead of their races or matches. —Jacob Feldman, Sportico.com, 11 Aug. 2024

During charging, the Prologue maintained a relatively high rate across the entire 35 minutes rather than tapering off rapidly, as is common with earlier EVs. —Jonathan M. Gitlin, Ars Technica, 9 Aug. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1848, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

taper off

verb

: to stop or lessen gradually