taper off vs discontinue

taper off and discontinue both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
taper off	No	No	Yes	No
discontinue	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, discontinue is a hypernym of taper off; that is, discontinue is a word with a broader meaning than taper off:

taper off (verb)	discontinue (verb)
become smaller or less active	prevent completion
end weakly	put an end to a state or an activity
	come to or be at an end