lapse

noun

1. 1

   A temporary failure; a slip.

   memory lapse

   lapse of judgment

   lapse in security

   lapse in concentration

2. 2

   A decline or fall in standards.

   The lapse to indolence is soft and imperceptible, because it is only a mere cessation of activity

3. 3

   A pause in continuity.

4. 4

   An interval of time between events.

   Still onward winds the dreary way; ⁠I with it; for I long to prove ⁠No lapse of moons can canker Love, Whatever fickle tongues may say.

   Bacon was content to wait the lapse of long centuries for his expected revenue of fame

5. 5

   A termination of a right etc., through disuse or neglect.

6. 6

   A marked decrease in air temperature with increasing altitude because the ground is warmer than the surrounding air.

7. 7

   A common-law rule that if the person to whom property is willed were to die before the testator, then the gift would be ineffective.

8. 8

   A fall or apostasy.

verb

1. 1

   To fall away gradually; to subside.

   This perpetual disposition to shorten our words by retrenching the vowels, is nothing else but a tendency to lapse into the barbarity of those northern nations from whom we are descended

   Homer, however, in his characters of Vulcan and Thersites, in his story of Mars and Venus, in his behaviour of Irus and in other passages has been observed to have lapsed into the Burlesque character, and to have departed from that serious Air which seems essential to the magnificence of an Epic Poem.

2. 2

   To fall into error or heresy.

   To lapſe in Fullneſſe / Is ſorer, than to lye for Neede: and Falſhood / Is worſe in Kings, than Beggers.

3. 3

   To slip into a bad habit that one is trying to avoid.

4. 4

   To become void.

   The connections at Lewisham were never built, and the powers of the Act lapsed; but the spur at Nunhead was partly constructed.

5. 5

   To fall or pass from one proprietor to another, or from the original destination, by the omission, negligence, or failure of somebody, such as a patron or legatee.

   ...and if the archbishop shall not fill it up within six Months ensuing, it lapses to the King, but according to the Canon Law to the Pope.

Forms

plural

lapses

past tense

lapsed

past participle

lapsed

present participle

lapsing

third person singular

lapses