as in decreasing
to grow less in scope or intensity especially gradually
you'll find the symptoms begin tapering gradually about 24 hours after you take the medicine
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Recent Examples of tapering
Rain throughout the region is expected through Tuesday with the storm tapering.
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Deborah Netburn, Los Angeles Times, 4 Jan. 2026
Cut with a curved outer seam that balloons slightly through the thigh before tapering at the ankle, the shape is all about creating volume.
—Daisy Maldonado, InStyle, 29 Dec. 2025
After crunching the data, the researchers found that the most effective way of going off antidepressants and preventing a relapse in depression was doing slow tapering (again, over more than four weeks), combined with therapy sessions.
—Korin Miller, SELF, 12 Dec. 2025
Patients typically follow a 12-week course, starting with five sessions per week for three weeks, then tapering to two or three sessions weekly for the remaining nine weeks.
—Kamal Choudhury, USA Today, 12 Dec. 2025
Counties including Wyoming, Lackawanna, Luzerne, Wayne, and Pike will see 1–3 inches of wet snow tapering this evening, while Crawford County faces the longest-lasting impacts, with 3–6 inches today followed by 3–5 inches of lake-effect snow tonight through Thursday night.
—Hannah Parry, MSNBC Newsweek, 10 Dec. 2025
Snow will gradually diminish through the day, ending in Fort Collins by noon, tapering in Denver by late afternoon, and lingering the longest across the Palmer Divide, where flurries may stick around tonight.
—Callie Zanandrie, CBS News, 3 Dec. 2025
Many full-size van models also lack the necessary width for a transverse rear bed, tapering in toward the roof to cut width below what's necessary for a builder to install a transverse bed in the over-load floor space.
—New Atlas, 27 Aug. 2025
Employment peaked at 42,000 before tapering as the line itself grew more efficient.
—Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 26 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for tapering
Verb
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For women, this meant decreasing intake to about 400 to 600 calories three days per week, while men reduced calories to around 500 to 700.—
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An expensive habit with a decreasing ROI.—
Verb
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Beyond the curse of high expectations, other headwinds that weighed on Eaton's shares appear to be subsiding, including capacity expansion.—
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Hurricane conditions are occurring within the warning area in Cuba but expected to begin subsiding this afternoon.—
Verb
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Before the night was out, Germans began chipping away at the barrier, carrying off chunks of one of the symbols of the diminishing Iron Curtain.—
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Business leaders say that such policies risk accelerating an exodus of companies, diminishing the city’s commercial tax base, and ultimately affecting services and jobs essential to millions of New Yorkers.—
Verb
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Consumer prices in China unexpectedly rose last month, new data showed Sunday, a sign that deflationary pressures on the world’s second-largest economy may be easing.—
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This comes amid wider Russian attack on cities closer to Ukraine's front-line regions, signaling that Moscow has no intention of easing up its targeting of infrastructure or agreeing to any ceasefire.—
Verb
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According to the company, the declining profits stemmed from low drug reimbursement rates and slow retail sales.—
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After all, there are signs that the economy is improving (unemployment and inflation are declining), but after the economic struggles of recent years, and with household debt still high, an additional financing source won't hurt, either.—
Verb
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Try to find a place that will block blowing or falling debris.—
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Shop my favorite airport looks for winter travel below, with each outfit falling at or below $100.—
Verb
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Scientists believe that shrinking this laser-plasma accelerator (LPA) technology could eventually allow these diagnostic tools to be installed directly at large-scale fusion facilities.—
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That’s a relatively small slice of the pie, and it’s been shrinking in recent years as interest rates have gone up.—
Cite this Entry
“Tapering.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/tapering. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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