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Giant vs Taper - What's the difference?

giant | taper |

As nouns the difference between giant and taper

is that giant is (baseball) a player on the team the san francisco giants while 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.

giant

English

Alternative forms

* giaunt (obsolete)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A mythical human of very great size.
  • (lb) Specifically, any of the Gigantes, the race of giants in the Greek mythology.
  • A very tall person.
  • A tall species of a particular animal or plant.
  • (lb) A star that is considerably more luminous than a main sequence star of the same temperature (e.g. red giant, blue giant).
  • (lb) An Ethernet packet that exceeds the medium's maximum packet size of 1,518 bytes.
  • A very large organisation.
  • A person of extraordinary strength or powers, bodily or intellectual.
  • *
  • But then I had the flintlock by me for protection. ¶ There were giants in the days when that gun was made; for surely no modern mortal could have held that mass of metal steady to his shoulder. The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window.

    Synonyms

    See also:

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Very large.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-26, author= Nick Miroff
  • , volume=189, issue=7, page=32, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Mexico gets a taste for eating insects […] , passage=The San Juan market is Mexico City's most famous deli of exotic meats, where an adventurous shopper can hunt down hard-to-find critters […]. But the priciest items in the market aren't the armadillo steaks or even the bluefin tuna. That would be the frozen chicatanas giant winged ants – at around $500 a kilo.}}

    Synonyms

    * colossal, enormous, gigantic, immense, prodigious, vast * See also

    Antonyms

    * dwarf * midget

    Derived terms

    * giant cell * giant clam * giantess * giant heron * giantism * giant kettle * giant powder * giant puffball * giant salamander * giant squid * giant white radish

    Anagrams

    *

    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

    * ----