taper

See also: táper

English

WOTD – 2 May 2007

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle English taper, from Old English tapor (“taper, candle, wick of a lamp”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from Latin papyrus (“papyrus", used in Mediaeval times to mean "wick of a candle”), or of Celtic origin related to Irish tapar (“taper”), Welsh tampr (“a taper, torch”). Compare Sanskrit तपती (tápati, “(it) warms, gives out heat; to be hot; to heat”). More at tepid.

Noun

taper (plural tapers)

  1. A slender wax candle; a small lighted wax candle
    • ~1603, William Shakespeare, Othello, Act I, scene I, line 157:
      strike on the tinder, ho!/ Give me a taper.
    • 1913, Paul Laurence Dunbar, The Change
      Love used to carry a bow, you know,
      But now he carries a taper;
      It is either a length of wax aglow,
      Or a twist of lighted paper.
  2. (by extension) a small light.
  3. A tapering form; gradual diminution of thickness and/or cross section in an elongated object
    the taper of a spire
    The legs of the table had a slight taper to them.
    • 2005, Michael Ellis, Apollo Rises (page 15)
      Her hair hangs over her ears and flows to a taper at the back of her neck where it is held in place with a wide and circular black clasp.
  4. A thin stick used for lighting candles, either a wax-coated wick or a slow-burning wooden rod.
Derived terms
Translations

Verb

taper (third-person singular simple present tapers, present participle tapering, simple past and past participle tapered)

  1. (transitive) To make thinner or narrower at one end.
    • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 3
      Though true cylinders without — within, the villanous green goggling glasses deceitfully tapered downwards to a cheating bottom.
  2. (intransitive) To diminish gradually.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Adjective

taper

  1. Tapered; narrowing to a point.

Etymology 2

tape +‎ -er

Noun

taper (plural tapers)

  1. (weaving) One who operates a tape machine.
  2. Someone who works with tape or tapes.

Anagrams

Danish

Verb

taper

  1. present tense of tape

French

Etymology

From Middle French taper, from Old French tapper, taper (“to tap”), of Germanic origin, from Frankish *tappōn, *dabbōn (“to strike”) or from Middle Low German tappen, tapen (“to tap, rap, strike”); both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *dab- (“to strike”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰebʰ- (“to beat, strike, stun, be speechless”). Related to German tappen (“to grope, fumble”), Dutch deppen (“to dab”), Icelandic tappa, tapsa, tæpta (“to tap”). Related to dab.

Pronunciation

Verb

taper

  1. (transitive) to slap, knock, beat
  2. (transitive) to type (use a keyboard or typewriter)
  3. (intransitive, followed by the preposition sur) to hit, beat, rap
  4. (intransitive) to beat down (of the sun); to go to one's head (of wine etc.)
  5. (intransitive, slang) to stink, pong, reek
  6. (reflexive, slang) to put away (a meal etc.)
    • Je me suis tapé un bon petit hamburger hier soir.
  7. (reflexive, vulgar, slang) to fuck (have sex)
    • Il s'est tapé la fille de son patron.

Conjugation

Derived terms

See also

Further reading

Anagrams

Norman

Pronunciation

  • Audio (Jersey)(file)

Verb

taper (gerund tap'thie)

  1. (Jersey, onomatopoeia) to hit, knock

Derived terms

  • taper raide (“to hit hard”)

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

taper

  1. a loser

Inflection

Noun

taper

  1. Indefinite plural of tape

Verb

taper

  1. Present tense of tape (to lose)
  2. (archaic) present tense of tape (to tape)

Norwegian Nynorsk

Verb

taper

  1. present tense of tape (to lose)

Walloon

Verb

taper

  1. to throw
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