as in to decrease
to grow less in scope or intensity especially gradually
at this time of the year, light begins to taper off a little earlier each day
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Examples of taper off in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are virtually tied in the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist survey showing Harris with a one-point lead, as her polling surge appears to be tapering off ahead of the first debate between Harris and Trump.
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Sara Dorn, Forbes, 10 Sep. 2024
Many Americans are having trouble making ends meet, but inflation has slowed over the past couple of years, so COLAs also have tapered off.
—Russ Wiles, The Arizona Republic, 13 Oct. 2024
Interestingly, the study also revealed that TSA complaints tended to spike during certain months, with December, October, and November recording the highest number of daily complaints, which then tapered off significantly in January and February.
—Stella Shon, Travel + Leisure, 14 Aug. 2024
Downdetector, a website that tracks outages, showed customers reporting outages at about 9 a.m., and by about 11 a.m., the number of customers spiked to more than 100,000, although that number had been tapering off, and by 5 p.m. was getting close to 20,000.
—Susan Tompor, Detroit Free Press, 30 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for taper off 
Sara Dorn, Forbes, 10 Sep. 2024
Many Americans are having trouble making ends meet, but inflation has slowed over the past couple of years, so COLAs also have tapered off.
—Russ Wiles, The Arizona Republic, 13 Oct. 2024
Interestingly, the study also revealed that TSA complaints tended to spike during certain months, with December, October, and November recording the highest number of daily complaints, which then tapered off significantly in January and February.
—Stella Shon, Travel + Leisure, 14 Aug. 2024
Downdetector, a website that tracks outages, showed customers reporting outages at about 9 a.m., and by about 11 a.m., the number of customers spiked to more than 100,000, although that number had been tapering off, and by 5 p.m. was getting close to 20,000.
—Susan Tompor, Detroit Free Press, 30 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for taper off
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'taper off.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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“Taper off.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/taper%20off. Accessed 30 Oct. 2024.
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