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

The Twin Cities office of the National Weather Service expects more rain and drizzle for the metro on Wednesday, with a high of 51 Rain showers are likely for most of the area today, the Twin Cities office of the National Weather Service reports, but will taper off from north to south tonight. —John Autey, Twin Cities, 21 May 2025

The rain started to taper off as the diamond dry was applied to the dirt and the game was paused for several minutes. —Abbey Mastracco, New York Daily News, 15 May 2025

Rather, Kidman's hair tapered off into air at the nape of her neck. —Nicola Dall'asen, Allure, 6 May 2025

What to expect According to NOAA's three-day space weather outlook, geomagnetic activity is expected to increase late on April 15 or early April 16, peaking during the day and tapering off afterward. —Daisy Dobrijevic, Space.com, 14 Apr. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1848, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for taper off

• cerenkov
• ashraf
• checkoff
• cutoff
• falloff
• handoff
• kickoff
• layoff
• liftoff
• markoff
• markov
• payoff

Kids Definition

taper off

verb

: to stop or lessen gradually