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

Wednesday: Snow tapering off by midday, high near 17. —Thomas G. Moukawsher, Newsweek, 12 Feb. 2025

This snow tapers off during the early morning hours, but there still could be a few lingering snow showers around daybreak Sunday. —Nadine El-Bawab, ABC News, 8 Feb. 2025

Around that time, the snow will begin to taper off, transitioning into an icy mixture of snow and sleet for Sunday morning, with lingering snow showers in the forecast into the early afternoon hours. —Jessica Schladebeck, New York Daily News, 7 Feb. 2025

Moderate rain was expected to fall on and off throughout the region during the afternoon, as the system moved away from the region and the precipitation tapered off. —Rick Hurd, The Mercury News, 6 Feb. 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