fade vs taper

fade

verb
  • To sink away; to disappear gradually; to grow dim; to vanish. 

  • To grow weak; to lose strength; to decay; to perish gradually; to wither, as a plant. 

  • To hit the ball with the shot called a fade. 

  • To bet against. 

  • To lose freshness, color, or brightness; to become faint in hue or tint; hence, to be wanting in color. 

  • To cause to fade. 

noun
  • A haircut where the hair is short or shaved on the sides of the head and longer on top. See also high-top fade and low fade. 

  • The act of disappearing from a place so as not to be found; covert departure. 

  • A golf shot that curves intentionally to the player's right (if they are right-handed) or to the left (if left-handed). 

  • A fight. 

  • A gradual decrease in the brightness of a shot or the volume of sound or music (as a means of cutting to a new scene or starting a new song). 

taper

verb
  • To diminish gradually. 

  • To become thinner or narrower at one end. 

  • To make thinner or narrower at one end. 

  • (of a central bank) To tighten monetary policy. 

noun
  • A small light. 

  • A cone-shaped item for stretching the hole for an ear gauge (piercing). 

  • Someone who works with tape or tapes. 

  • A thin stick used for lighting candles, either a wax-coated wick or a slow-burning wooden rod. 

  • One who operates a tape machine. 

  • A slender wax candle. 

  • A tapering form; gradual diminution of thickness and/or cross section in an elongated object. 

adj
  • Tapered; narrowing to a point. 

How often have the words fade and taper occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )