lapse

From Middle French laps, from Latin lāpsus, from lābī (“to slip”). Doublet of lapsus.

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /læps/
• Rhymes: -æps

lapse (plural lapses)

1. A temporary failure; a slip.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:error

   • 1735, John Rogers, Nineteen Sermons on several occasions, London: W. Innys and R. Manby, OCLC 85881066, page 108:

     Now, tho’ this Scripture may be usefully understood and apply’d by us as a Caution to guard against those Lapses and Failings to which our Infirmities daily expose us

2. A decline or fall in standards.
   • 1751 September 10, Samuel Johnson, “No. CLV”, in The Rambler, OCLC 29126588:

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

3. A pause in continuity.
4. An interval of time between events.
   • 1860, Isaac Taylor, Ultimate Civilization and Other Essays, London: Bell and Daldy, OCLC 6077058, page 309:

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

5. A termination of a right etc., through disuse or neglect.
6. (meteorology) A marked decrease in air temperature with increasing altitude because the ground is warmer than the surrounding air.
7. (law) 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. (theology) A fall or apostasy.

• (a temporary failure, slip): blooper, blunder, boo-boo, defect, error, fault, faux pas, fluff, gaffe, mistake, slip, stumble, thinko

• lapsarian

lapse (third-person singular simple present lapses, present participle lapsing, simple past and past participle lapsed)

1. (intransitive) To fall away gradually; to subside.
   • 1841, Jonathan Swift, “A letter to the Lord High Treasurer”, in The Works of Jonathan Swift, London: Henry Washbourne, OCLC 10447395, page 288:

     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

   • 1730, Joseph Addison, The Works of the Late Right Honorable Joseph Addison, Esq., volume the third, London: Jacob Tonson, OCLC 519569671:

     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. (intransitive) To fall into error or heresy.
   • 1611 April (first recorded performance)​, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene vi], page 385, column 2:

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

3. To slip into a bad habit that one is trying to avoid.
4. (intransitive) To become void.
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.
   • 1726, John Ayliffe, Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani, London: Printed for the Author by D. Leach, OCLC 6977383, page 116:

     ...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.

• ALSEP, ELSPA, Lapes, Leaps, Pales, Peals, Slape, e-pals, leaps, lepas, pales, peals, pleas, salep, sepal, slape, spale

lapse c

1. indefinite plural of laps

lapse

1. genitive singular of laps

lāpse

1. vocative masculine singular of lāpsus