Tapering fingers are defined as long fingers that gradually become narrower. The word is used in the 86th chapter of the novel entitled Of Human Bondage by author W. Somerset Maugham. The context in which the words tapering fingers appear in this book is as follows.
"He was suffering from a sharp attack of jaundice, and had been taken into the ward on account of obscure symptoms which it seemed necessary to watch. . He answered the various questions which it was Philip's duty to ask him in a pleasant, educated voice. Since he was lying in bed it was difficult to tell if he was short or tall, but his small head and small hands suggested that he was a man of less than average height. Philip has the habit of looking at people's hands, and Athelny's astonished him: they were very small, with long, tapering fingers and beautiful rosy finger-nails; they were very smooth and except fro the jaundice would have been of a surprising whiteness."
"He was suffering from a sharp attack of jaundice, and had been taken into the ward on account of obscure symptoms which it seemed necessary to watch. . He answered the various questions which it was Philip's duty to ask him in a pleasant, educated voice. Since he was lying in bed it was difficult to tell if he was short or tall, but his small head and small hands suggested that he was a man of less than average height. Philip has the habit of looking at people's hands, and Athelny's astonished him: they were very small, with long, tapering fingers and beautiful rosy finger-nails; they were very smooth and except fro the jaundice would have been of a surprising whiteness."