lapse
/læps/ verb C1- To fall away gradually; to subside.
- To fall into error or heresy.
- To slip into a bad habit that one is trying to avoid.
- To become void.
- To fall or pass from one proprietor to another, or from the original destination, by the omission, negligence, or failure of somebody, such as a patron or legatee.
He/she/it lapses · Past lapsed · Past participle lapsed · -ing form lapsing
Verb forms
- Base form
- lapse
- He/she/it
- lapses
- Past
- lapsed
- Past participle
- lapsed
- -ing form
- lapsing
From the library
It was my intention to have stopped there, and to have said nothing of that event which has created a void in my life which the lapse of two years has done little to fill.
While we wait, time will be progressing, events will succeed each other; things which in the evening look dark and obscure, appear but too clearly in the light of morning, and sometimes the utterance of one word, or the lapse of a single day, will reveal the most cruel calumnies.”
An unhappy lapse of fortune and the absence of my protector have cast me down, certainly, but not forever.
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