Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Lapse

Lapse (lăps), n. [L. lapsus, fr. labi, p. p. lapsus, to slide, to fall: cf. F. laps. See Sleep.] 1. A gliding, slipping, or gradual falling; an unobserved or imperceptible progress or passing away,; — restricted usually to immaterial things, or to figurative uses.

The lapse to indolence is soft and imperceptible. Rambler.

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

2. A slip; an error; a fault; a failing in duty; a slight deviation from truth or rectitude.

To guard against those lapses and failings to which our infirmities daily expose us. Rogers.

3. (Law) 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.

4. (Theol.) A fall or apostasy.

Lapse, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Lapsed (#); p. pr. & vb. n. Lapsing.] 1. To pass slowly and smoothly downward, backward, or away; to slip downward, backward, or away; to glide; — mostly restricted to figurative uses.

A tendency to lapse into the barbarity of those northern nations from whom we are descended. Swift.

Homer, in his characters of Vulcan and Thersites, has lapsed into the burlesque character. Addison.

2. 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.

To lapse in fullness Is sorer than to lie for need. Shak.

3. (Law) (a) 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. (b) To become ineffectual or void; to fall.

If the archbishop shall not fill it up within six months ensuing, it lapses to the king. Ayliffe.

Lapse, v. t. 1. To let slip; to permit to devolve on another; to allow to pass.

An appeal may be deserted by the appellant's lapsing the term of law. Ayliffe.

2. To surprise in a fault or error; hence, to surprise or catch, as an offender. [Obs.]

For which, if be lapsed in this place, I shall pay dear. Shak.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.