different between slacken vs taper

English

Etymology

From Middle English slakenen, equivalent to slack +? -en.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?slæ.k?n/
• Rhymes: -æk?n

Verb

slacken (third-person singular simple present slackens, present participle slackening, simple past and past participle slackened)

1. (intransitive) To gradually decrease in intensity or tautness; to become slack.

   The pace slackened.

   • 1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows:

     He seemed tired, and the Rat let him rest unquestioned, understanding something of what was in his thoughts; knowing, too, the value all animals attach at times to mere silent companionship, when the weary muscles slacken and the mind marks time.

2. (transitive) To make slack, less taut, or less intense.
   • 1900, Charles W. Chesnutt, The House Behind the Cedars, Chapter I:

     During this interlude, Warwick, though he had slackened his pace measurably, had so nearly closed the gap between himself and them as to hear the old woman say, with the dulcet negro intonation: […]

   • 1986, Mari Sandoz, The Horsecatcher:

     Elk slackened the rope so he could walk farther away, and together they went awkwardly up the trail toward the grassy little flat...

3. To deprive of cohesion by combining chemically with water; to slake.

   to slacken lime

Related terms

• slack
• slacker

Translations

Anagrams

• cankles, snackle

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?te?p?/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?te?p?/
• Rhymes: -e?p?(?)
• Homophone: tapir

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 ???? (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

• taperwise

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 villainous green goggling glasses deceitfully tapered downwards to a cheating bottom.

2. (intransitive) To diminish gradually.

Synonyms

• narrow

Derived terms

• taper off

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

• Peart, Petra, apert, apter, parte, pater, peart, petar, petra, prate, preta, reapt, repat, retap, trape, treap

Danish

Verb

taper

1. present of tape

French

Etymology

From Middle French taper, from Old French tapper, taper (“to tap”), of Germanic origin, from Frankish *tapp?n, *dabb?n (“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 *d?eb?- (“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

• IPA^(key): /ta.pe/
• Rhymes: -e
• Homophones: tapai, tapé, tapée, tapées, tapés, tapez

Verb

taper

1. (transitive) to slap, knock, beat
2. (transitive) to type (use a keyboard or typewriter)
3. (transitive with 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.

8. (reflexive) to put up with

Conjugation

Derived terms

See also

• frapper
• cogner

Further reading

• “taper” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• parte, pâtre, prêta, tarpé

Middle English

Alternative forms

• tapre, tapyr, tapir, tapor, tapour, tapur, tapper

Etymology

From Old English tapor, possibly from Latin pap?rus (if so, a doublet of paper).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ta?p?r/

Noun

taper (plural tapres)

1. taper (thin candle)

Descendants

• English: taper

References

• “t?per, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Norman

Pronunciation

Verb

taper (gerund tap'thie)

1. (Jersey, onomatopoeia) to hit, knock

Derived terms

• taper raide (“to hit hard”)

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology 1

From tape (“to lose”) +? -er.

Noun

taper m (definite singular taperen, indefinite plural tapere, definite plural taperne)

1. a loser

Related terms

• tapar (Nynorsk)

Verb

taper

1. present tense of tape (“to lose”)

Etymology 2

Noun

taper m

1. indefinite plural of tape

Verb

taper

1. present tense of tape (“to tape”)

References

• “taper” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “taper” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Anagrams

• paret, parte, pater, patre, Petra, prate, rapet, rapte

Norwegian Nynorsk

Verb

taper

1. present of tape (to lose)

Walloon

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Verb

taper

1. to throw