What does lapse mean?
Definitions for lapse
læpslapse
This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word lapse.
Princeton's WordNet
oversight, lapsenoun
a mistake resulting from inattention
lapsenoun
a break or intermission in the occurrence of something
"a lapse of three weeks between letters"
backsliding, lapse, lapsing, relapse, relapsing, reversion, revertingverb
a failure to maintain a higher state
sink, pass, lapseverb
pass into a specified state or condition
"He sank into nirvana"
lapseverb
end, at least for a long time
"The correspondence lapsed"
lapse, backslideverb
drop to a lower level, as in one's morals or standards
relapse, lapse, recidivate, regress, retrogress, fall backverb
go back to bad behavior
"Those who recidivate are often minor criminals"
lapseverb
let slip
"He lapsed his membership"
elapse, lapse, pass, slip by, glide by, slip away, go by, slide by, go alongverb
pass by
"three years elapsed"
Wiktionary
lapsenoun
A temporary failure; a slip.
lapsenoun
A decline or fall in standards.
lapsenoun
A pause in continuity.
lapsenoun
An interval of time between events.
lapsenoun
A termination of a right etc, through disuse or neglect.
lapsenoun
(weather) A marked decrease in air temperature with increasing altitude because the ground is warmer than the surrounding air. This condition usually occurs when skies are clear and between 1100 and 1600 hours, local time. Strong convection currents exist during lapse conditions. For chemical operations, the state is defined as unstable. This condition is normally considered the most unfavorable for the release of chemical agents. See lapse rate.
lapsenoun
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.
lapseverb
To fall away gradually; to subside
lapseverb
To fall into error or heresy
lapseverb
To slip into a bad habit that one is trying to avoid.
lapseverb
To become void
Etymology: From laps, from lapsus, from.
Samuel Johnson's Dictionary
LAPSEnoun
Etymology: lapsus, Latin.
Round I saw
Hill, dale, and shady woods, and sunny plains,
And liquid lapse of murm’ring streams. John Milton.Notions of the mind are preserved in the memory, notwithstanding lapse of time. Matthew Hale, Original of Mankind.
These are petty errors and minor lapses, not considerably injurious unto truth. Thomas Browne, Vulgar Errours, b. vi. c. 13.
The weakness of human understanding all will confess; yet the confidence of most practically disowns it; and it is easier to persuade them of it from others lapses than their own. Joseph Glanvill, Scep. c. 9.
This scripture may be usefully applied as a caution to guard against those lapses and failings, to which our infirmities daily expose us. John Rogers, Sermon.
It hath been my constant business to examine whether I could find the smallest lapse in stile or propriety through my whole collection, that I might send it abroad as the most finished piece. Jonathan Swift.
In a presentation to a vacant church, a layman ought to present within four months, and a clergyman within six, otherwise a devolution, or lapse of right, happens. John Ayliffe.
To Lapseverb
Etymology: from the noun.
This 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, and whose languages labour all under the same defect. Jonathan Swift, Letter to the Lord Treasurer.
I have ever narrified my friends,
Of whom he’s chief, with all the size that verity
Would without lapsing suffer. William Shakespeare, Coriolanus.To lapse in fulness
Is sorer than to lie for need; and falshood
Is worse in kings than beggars. William Shakespeare, Cymbeline., in his characters of Vulcan and Thersites, has lapsed into the burlesque character, and departed from that serious air essential to an epick poem. Joseph Addison, Spectator.
Let there be no willful perversion of another’s meaning; no sudden seizure of a lapsed syllable to play upon it. Isaac Watts.
Myself stood out;
For which if I be lapsed in this place,
I shall pay dear. William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night.As an appeal may be deserted by the appellant’s lapsing the term of law, so it may also be deserted by a lapse of the term of a judge. John Ayliffe, Parergon.
If the archbishop shall not fill it up within six months ensuing, it lapses to the king. John Ayliffe, Parergon.
Once more I will renew
His lapsed pow’rs, though forfeit, and inthrall’d
By sin to foul exorbitant desires. John Milton, Paradise Lost.Indeed the charge seems designed as an artifice of diversion, a sprout of that fig-tree which was to hide the nakedness of lapsed Adam. Decay of Piety.
All publick forms suppose it the most principal, universal, and daily requisite to the lapsing state of human corruption. Decay of Piety.
These were looked on as lapsed persons, and great severities of penance were prescribed them, as appears by the canons of Ancyra. Edward Stillingfleet, Disc. on Romish Idolatry,.
Webster Dictionary
Lapsenoun
a gliding, slipping, or gradual falling; an unobserved or imperceptible progress or passing away,; -- restricted usually to immaterial things, or to figurative uses
Lapsenoun
a slip; an error; a fault; a failing in duty; a slight deviation from truth or rectitude
Lapsenoun
the termination of a right or privilege through neglect to exercise it within the limited time, or through failure of some contingency; hence, the devolution of a right or privilege
Lapsenoun
a fall or apostasy
Lapseverb
to pass slowly and smoothly downward, backward, or away; to slip downward, backward, or away; to glide; -- mostly restricted to figurative uses
Lapseverb
to slide or slip in moral conduct; to fail in duty; to fall from virtue; to deviate from rectitude; to commit a fault by inadvertence or mistake
Lapseverb
to fall or pass from one proprietor to another, or from the original destination, by the omission, negligence, or failure of some one, as a patron, a legatee, etc
Lapseverb
to become ineffectual or void; to fall
Lapseverb
to let slip; to permit to devolve on another; to allow to pass
Lapseverb
to surprise in a fault or error; hence, to surprise or catch, as an offender
Etymology: [L. lapsus, fr. labi, p. p. lapsus, to slide, to fall: cf. F. laps. See Sleep.]
Chambers 20th Century Dictionary
Lapse
laps, v.i. to slip or glide: to pass by degrees: to fall from the faith or from virtue: to fail in duty: to pass to another proprietor, &c., by the negligence of a patron, to become void: to lose certain privileges by neglect of the necessary conditions.—n. a slipping or falling: a failing in duty: a fault.—adj. Lap′sable.—The lapsed, the name applied in the early Christian Church to those who, overcome by heathen persecution, fell away from the faith. [L. labi, lapsus, to slip or fall, lapsus, a fall, akin to lap.]
Military Dictionary and Gazetteer
lapse
To fall in, or belong to. This expression was formerly used in the British army to signify the reversion of any military property. Thus, upon the sale or purchase of one commission at the regulated difference, another (where there are two) is said to lapse to government. Commissions lapse, or fall into the patronage of government, when vacancies happen by death, by officers being superseded, or where officers apply to sell who have only purchased a part of their commissions, and have not served long enough to be entitled to sell the whole; in which case they are only permitted to sell what they actually purchased, and the remainder is in the gift of the government.
Anagrams for lapse »
leaps
pales
peals
pleas
salep
sepal
spale
lepas
speal
saple
slape
elaps
Numerology
Chaldean Numerology
The numerical value of lapse in Chaldean Numerology is: 2
Pythagorean Numerology
The numerical value of lapse in Pythagorean Numerology is: 8
Examples of lapse in a Sentence
We view this as a major lapse.
Time crumbles things everything grows old under the power of Time and is forgotten through the lapse of Time.
It's a little disappointing. I think a lot of people on the ship share this sentiment that this was a lapse in judgment on either Royal Caribbean's part or the captain's part.
I don’t care if you’re playing the first-place team or a team that struggles, if you give an inch, or just have one mental lapse, you can turn things the other way quickly. I think it’s a great example and reminder every team in this league is dangerous.
No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are throughout persuaded of each other's worth.
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Translations for lapse
From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary
- lapsusCatalan, Valencian
- παραγραφήGreek
- prescripción, lapsoSpanish
- erreur, fauteFrench
- 失効Japanese
- lapsuLatin
- vervallenDutch
- pomyłka, potknięcie, błądPolish
- prescrição, lapsoPortuguese
- 失误Chinese
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"lapse." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2023. Web. 1 Jun 2023. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/lapse>.
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