an accidental or temporary decline or deviation from an expected or accepted condition or state; a temporary falling or slipping from a previous standard: a lapse of justice.
a slip or error, often of a trivial sort; failure: a lapse of memory.
an interval or passage of time; elapsed period: a lapse of ten minutes before the program resumed.
a moral fall, as from rectitude or virtue.
a fall or decline to a lower grade, condition, or degree; descent; regression: a lapse into savagery.
the act of falling, slipping, sliding, etc., slowly or by degrees.
a falling into disuse.
Insurance. discontinuance of coverage resulting from nonpayment of a premium; termination of a policy.
Law. the termination of a right or privilege through neglect to exercise it or through failure of some contingency.
Meteorology. lapse rate.
Archaic. a gentle, downward flow, as of water.
verb (used without object),lapsed,laps·ing.
to fall or deviate from a previous standard; fail to maintain a normative level: Toward the end of the book the author lapsed into bad prose.
to come to an end; stop: We let our subscription to that magazine lapse.
to fall, slip, or sink; subside: to lapse into silence.
to fall into disuse: The custom lapsed after a period of time.
to deviate or abandon principles, beliefs, etc.: to lapse into heresy.
to fall spiritually, as an apostate: to lapse from grace.
to pass away, as time; elapse.
Law. to become void, as a legacy to someone who dies before the testator.
to cease being in force; terminate: Your insurance policy will lapse after 30 days.
Origin of lapse
1520–30; <Latin lāpsus an error, slipping, failing, equivalent to lāb(ī) to slide, slip, fall, make a mistake + -sus, for -tus suffix of v. action
OTHER WORDS FROM lapse
lapser,nounun·laps·ing,adjective
Words nearby lapse
L'Après-midi d'un Faune, lap robe, lapsable, Lapsang, Lapsang Souchong, lapse, lapsed, lapse rate, lapsible, lap-size, lapstrake