lapse /læps/noun 8verb 5forms 4 noun8 •A temporary failure; a slip.It was a regrettable lapse by a person of otherwise exemplary character. •A pause in continuity. •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. — 1850 •A termination of a right etc., through disuse or neglect. •A decline or fall in standards.The lapse to indolence is soft and imperceptible, because it is only a mere cessation of activity — 1751 •A fall or apostasy. •A marked decrease in air temperature with increasing altitude because the ground is warmer than the surrounding air. •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. verb5 •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 — 1841 •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. — 1946 •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. — 1611 •To slip into a bad habit that one is trying to avoid. •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. — 1726 formslapsed · lapsing · lapses · lapseth
