| 释义 |
▪ I. lapsing, vbl. n.|ˈlæpsɪŋ|
[f. lapse v. + -ing1.]
The action of the vb. lapse. a. Gliding or dropping of water. b. In immaterial sense: The action or process of sinking or dropping; also, of falling to (a public body) as an acquisition.
1663J. Spencer Prodigies (1665) 145 The lapsing of that People to the grossest ignorance. 1820L. Hunt Indicator No. 24 (1822) I. 187 In the notes of the birds and the lapsing of the water-fall. 1862Goulburn Pers. Relig. I. i. iv. 64 To reduce prayer to a form..But how to prevent..its lapsing into a form? 1884H. Spencer in Pop. Sci. Monthly XXIV. 727 The law-makers who provided for the ultimate lapsing of French railways to the state.
▪ II. ˈlapsing, ppl. a.
[f. lapse v. + -ing2.]
1. a. Of water: Gliding, dropping. b. Of time: Gliding or passing away.
a1771Smollett (Worc.), To magic murmur of lapsing streams. 1794Mrs. Radcliffe Myst. Udolpho xv, At twilight hour, with tritons gay I dance upon the lapsing tides. 1827in Hone Every-day Bk. II. 893 We pass near some gently lapsing water. 1841Lady F. Hastings Poems 11 Though many a lapsing year hath intervened. 1862W. W. Story Roba di R. xvii. (1864) 352 Rome is the city of fountains. Wherever one goes he hears the pleasant sound of lapsing water. 1862S. Lucas Secularia 381 Test the growth of enlightenment by lapsing centuries.
2. Sinking (into decay or depravity); failing, flagging.
1667Decay Chr. Piety vii. 146 The lapsing state of human corruption. 1668Howe Bless. Righteous (1825) 90 It is the peculiar honor and prerogative of a Deity..to be the fulcrum, the centre of a lapsing creation. 1867G. Macdonald Poems 67 O lapsing heart! thy feeble strain Sends up the blood so spare.
Hence ˈlapsingly adv., in a lapsing manner.
1848Blackw. Mag. LXIV. 291 The soft moan Of billows that shoreward Are lapsingly thrown. |