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

Thirty minutes later, the fight tapered off, and the soldiers lit up cigarettes. —Tyler Hicks, New York Times, 17 Apr. 2024

Confidence: Medium-High Tomorrow night: Isolated showers quickly taper off, but winds from the west remain blustery. —David Streit, Washington Post, 11 Apr. 2024

Any precipitation should taper off by early Friday morning, as dry weather returns to the area. —Haadiza Ogwude, The Enquirer, 28 Mar. 2024

Snow will slowly taper off in Colorado Friday, leaving the highest peaks buried under up to 4 feet of snow by storm’s end. —Mary Gilbert, CNN, 14 Mar. 2024

So look for the Sukhoi massacre to taper off in the coming days as a shortage of missiles weighs on Ukraine’s capacity, though not its capability, to shoot down Russia’s best warplanes. —David Axe, Forbes, 19 Feb. 2024

The forecast for metro Phoenix calls for increasing chances of showers Friday evening, continuing into Saturday, when rain is expected to taper off. —The Arizona Republic, 9 Feb. 2024

Wind chills are expected to taper off early this week. —Aaron Valdez, The Enquirer, 21 Jan. 2024

Snow should taper off late this afternoon or early evening. —Jason Samenow, Washington Post, 19 Jan. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1848, in the meaning defined above

Kids Definition

taper off

verb

: to stop or lessen gradually