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Shaped like a spindle; tapering at each end; as, a fusiform root; a fusiform cell.

A narrow tapelike fabric used for binding hats, shoes, etc., -- sometimes made ornamental.

Pertaining to tapestry produced in the so-called Gobelin works, which have been maintained by the French Government since 1667.

To taper, as the tail of certain birds.

Tapered; -- said of a bird's tail when the outer feathers are shortest, and the others successively longer. Graduated tube, bottle, cap, or glass, a vessel, usually of glass, having horizontal marks upon its sides, with figures, to indicate the amount of the contents at the several levels. -- Graduated spring (Railroa…

Any marine fish of the genus Macrurus, in which the body and tail taper to a point; they mostly inhabit the deep sea; -- called also onion fish, and rat-tail fish.

of cloth inserted in a garment, for the purpose of strengthening some part or giving it a tapering enlargement. Seam and gusset and band. Hood.

A dealer in small wares, as tapes, pins, needles, and thread; also, a hatter. [Obs.] The haberdasher heapeth wealth by hats. Gascoigne.

That which is hung as lining or drapery for the walls of a room, as tapestry, paper, etc., or to cover or drape a door or window; -- used chiefly in the plural. Nor purple hangings clothe the palace walls. Dryden.

A toy instrument of strips of glass or metal hung on two tapes, and struck with hammers.

An incurved, tapering and pointed appendage found in the flowers of the milkweed (Asclepias).

ating kindness and generosity to guests and strangers; as, hospitable rites. To where you taper cheers the vale With hospitable ray. Goldsmith.

but unconnected with the tissues. It is usually formed by parasitic worms, esp. by larval tapeworms, as Echinococcus and Coenurus. See these words in the Vocabulary. Hydatid of Morgagni (Anat.), one of the small pedunculated bodies found between the testicle and the head of the epididymis, and supposed to be a remnant…

In a ill manner; badly; weakly. How ill this taper burns! Shak. Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay. Goldsmith.

Persons in the early church who had received baptism; in which ceremony a lighted taper was given them, as a symbol of the spiritual illumination they has received by that sacrament.

A kind of tape or braid. Shak.

ippinensis) used for dyeing silk. It is violently emetic, and is used in the treatment of tapeworm. [Written also kameela.]

A kind of whip for flogging criminals, formerly much used in Russia. The last is a tapering bundle of leather thongs twisted with wire and hardened, so that it mangles the flesh.

Rather narrow, tapering to a point at the apex, and sometimes at the base also; as, a lanceolate leaf.

Tape or braid; an ornament. Halliwell. Leere side, the left side, as that on which a leere or ornament was worn. B. Jonson.