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Gaunt vs Taper - What's the difference?

gaunt | taper |

As an adjective gaunt

is lean, angular and bony.

As a noun taper is

a slender wax candle; a small lighted wax candle; hence, a small light or taper can be (weaving) one who operates a tape machine.

As a verb taper is

to make thinner or narrower at one end.

gaunt

English

Alternative forms

* (l) * (l) (Scotland)

Adjective

(er)
  • lean, angular and bony
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1894 , author=Joseph Jacobs , title=The Fables of Aesop , chapter=1 citation , passage=A gaunt Wolf was almost dead with hunger when he happened to meet a House-dog who was passing by.}}
  • haggard, drawn and emaciated
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1917 , author=Arthur Conan Doyle , title=His Last Bow , chapter=5 citation , passage=In the dim light of a foggy November day the sick room was a gloomy spot, but it was that gaunt , wasted face staring at me from the bed which sent a chill to my heart.}}
  • bleak, barren and desolate
  • * {{quote-book
    • , year=1908 , author=William Hope Hodgson , title=The House on the Borderland , chapter=14 citation , passage=Behind me, rose up, to an extraordinary height, gaunt , black cliffs. }}

    Synonyms

    * scraggy, scrawny, skinny

    taper

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) taper, from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A slender wax candle; a small lighted wax candle; hence, a small light.
  • * ~1603 , William Shakespeare, ''Othello, Act I, scene I, line 157:
    • strike on the tinder, ho!/ Give me a taper .
  • * 1913 ,
    • 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.
  • 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.
  • A thin stick used for lighting candles, either a wax-coated wick or a slow-burning wooden rod.
    • Derived terms
    * taperwise

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To make thinner or narrower at one end.
  • * 1851 ,
    • Though true cylinders without — within, the villanous green goggling glasses deceitfully tapered downwards to a cheating bottom.
  • To diminish gradually.
    • Derived terms
    * taper off
    Synonyms
    * narrow

    Etymology 2

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (weaving) One who operates a tape machine.
  • Someone who works with tape or tapes.

    • Anagrams

    * ----