Tapering: Prior to May of 2013, “tapering” was a term most commonly heard in athletics training. On May 22, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke stated in testimony before Congress that that Fed may “taper” the bond-buying program, called quantitative easing (QE), in the coming months. The expectation in 2013 is that the Fed will gradually bring its current pace of $85 billion per month in bond purchases to zero by the middle half of 2014.
Source: about.com