[f. TAPER v. + -ING1.] The action of the verb TAPER in various senses. Also concr. a thing or part that tapers.
1610. W. Folkingham, Art of Survey, I. iii. 6. The boaling, spreading,… and tapering of trees.
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., ii. 30. The Screw-plate will, after it gets a little below the tapering, go no further, but work and wear off the thred again it made about the tapering.
1884. Bower & Scott, De Bary’s Phaner., 485. Those [cells] … must further show a conical tapering.
1890. L. C. D’Oyle, Notches, 186. It will take you months of steady tapering down.
1892. Clouston, Ment. Dis. (ed. 3), ix. 355. Never in this nor any other class of insane drunkards think of tapering off the drink.
