Also 5 tapre. [f. TAPER sb.1: perh. through the earlier TAPERWISE: cf. quot. 1496.] Diminishing gradually in breadth or thickness towards one extremity (originally, upward); becoming continuously narrower or more slender in one direction; tapering.
1496. Bk. St. Albans, Fishing, h j b. Thenne shaue your staffe & make hym tapre wexe [a. 1450 Fysshynge with an Angle, ‘tapur wyys waxing’].
a. 1625. Nomenclator Navalis (Harl. MS. 2301). Taper bore, is when a Peece is wider at the Mouth than towards the Breech.
1649. Blithe, Eng. Improv. Impr., v. (1653), 24. Make thy Drain, or Trench, somewhat Taper (viz.) Narrower and Narrower downwards.
1678. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., vi. 113. All sorts of Stuff or work that are smaller at one end than at the other, and diminish gradually from the biggest end, is said to be Taper.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 318/1. The lower part [of a drawing iron is] Taper, ending in a point.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Past., VII. 54. Fair Galatea,… Tall as a Poplar, taper as the Bole.
1706. Phillips (ed. 6), Taper or Tapering,… like a Cone, or Pyramid.
1758. Vacation, in Dodsley, Collect. Poems, VI. 151. If Marian chance to shew Her taper leg and stocking blue.
1770. Chron., in Ann. Reg., 152/1. The body runs taper to the tail.
1821. Combe, Wife, III. (Chandos ed.), 330. To the fine taper fingers’ ends.
1888. Hasluck, Model Engin. Handybk. (1900), 38. The piston-head has a taper hole through it, into which the tapered end of piston-rod is forced.
b. fig. Of resources: Diminishing, becoming more and more ‘slender.’ colloq. or slang.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 224/1. Just in the critical time for us, as things was growing very taper. Ibid. (1861), II. 237/1. That sort of thing soon makes money show taper.
c. Comb., chiefly parasynthetic in -ED2, as taper-bored, -headed, -limbed, -molded, -pointed (but in some of these taper may be sb.); also with a participle, as taper-grown.
1626. Capt. Smith, Accid. Yng. Seamen, 32. To know whether she be equally bored, camber, taper, or belbored.
1634–5. Brereton, Trav. (Chetham), 165. They are called drakes. They are taper-bored in the chamber.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., I. 13. Bristles or prickles like whin-pricks perfectly taper-grown.
1678. Phillips (ed. 4), Taper-board, in Gunnery, is when a piece is wider at the mouth than towards the breetch.
1725. Philips, To Miss Carteret, 41. Then the taper-moulded waist With a span of ribbon brac’d.
1828. J. E. Smith, Eng. Flora, II. 12. Leaves broad, taper-pointed, angular rather than toothed.
1843. Carlyle, Hist. Sk. (1898), 270. The taper-limbed Apollo figure.
