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A name for the one of the fancy sails alleged to have been sometimes set above the skysail. [Obs.]

A small, insignificant fellow. [Colloq.]

A small wax candle; a small lighted wax candle; hence, a small light. Get me a taper in my study, Lucius. Shak.

Lighted with a taper or tapers; as, a tapered choir. [R.] T. Warton.

Becoming gradually smaller toward one end. -- Ta"per*ing*ly, adv.

The quality or state of being taper; tapering form; taper. Shenstone.

Paper with a rough surface; esp., handmade paper of great hardness for the use of painters in water colors.

Paper steeped in saltpeter, which burns slowly, and is used as a match for firing gunpowder, and the like.

A plant with a tall flowering stem; esp. the great mullein, or hag-taper, and the golden-rod.

er; powerful; as, the ablest man in the senate; an able speech. No man wrote abler state papers. Macaulay.

One of the functionaries who light and trim the tapers.

A property or quality of a thing which is not essential to it, as whiteness in paper; an attribute.

Chemistry in its relations to actinism. Draper.

Tapering to a point; pointed; as, acuminate leaves, teeth, etc.

A sharpening; termination in a sharp point; a tapering point. Bp. Pearson.

participle, adjective, or other adverb, and usually placed near it; as, he writes well; paper extremely white.

tice, especially a paid notice in some public print; anything that advertises; as, a newspaper containing many advertisement.

, expending, with profit, or without loss or too great injury; as, A affords his goods cheaper than B; a man can afford a sum yearly in charity.

is the pulque of the Mexicans; distilled, it yields mescal. A strong thread and a tough paper are made from the leaves, and the wood has many uses.

r saturate with albumen; to coat or treat with an albuminous solution; as, to albuminize paper.