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Webster 1913 Edition

Lapse

Lapse

(lăps)
,
Noun.
[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

,
Verb.
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.
Shakespeare
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

,
Verb.
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.
Shakespeare

Webster 1828 Edition

Lapse

LAPSE

,
Noun.
laps. [L. lapsus, from labor, to slide, to fall.]
1.
A sliding, gliding or flowing; a smooth course; as the lapse of a stream; the lapse of time.
2.
A falling or passing.
The lapse to indolence is soft and imperceptible, but the return to diligence is difficult.
3.
A slip an error; a fault; a failing in duty; a slight deviation from truth or rectitude.
This Scripture may be usefully applied as a caution to guard against those lapses and fallings to which our infirmities daily expose us.
So we say, a lapse in style or propriety.
4.
In ecclesiastical law, the slip or omission of a patron to present a clerk to a benefice, within six months after it becomes void. In this case, the benefice is said to be lapsed, or in lapse.
5.
In theology, the fall or apostasy of Adam.

LAPSE

,
Verb.
I.
laps.
1.
To glide; to pass slowly, silently or by degrees.
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 which we descended.
2.
To slide or slip in moral conduct; to fail in duty; to deviate from rectitude; to commit a fault.
To lapse in fullness is sorer than to lie for need.
3.
To slip or commit a fault by inadvertency or mistake.
Homer, in his characters of Vulcan and Thersites, has lapsed into the burlesque character.
4.
To fall or pass from one proprietor to another, by the omission or negligence of the patron.
If the archbishop shall not fill it up within six months ensuing, it lapses to the king.
5.
To fall from a state of innocence, or from truth, faith or perfection.
Once more I will renew his lapsed powers.

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