LAPSE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does lapse mean? 

• LAPSE (noun)
  The noun LAPSE has 3 senses:

1. a mistake resulting from inattention

2. a break or intermission in the occurrence of something

3. a failure to maintain a higher state

  Familiarity information: LAPSE used as a noun is uncommon.

• LAPSE (verb)
  The verb LAPSE has 6 senses:

1. pass into a specified state or condition

2. end, at least for a long time

3. drop to a lower level, as in one's morals or standards

4. go back to bad behavior

5. let slip

6. pass by

  Familiarity information: LAPSE used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LAPSE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A mistake resulting from inattention

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

lapse; oversight

Hypernyms ("lapse" is a kind of...):

error; fault; mistake (a wrong action attributable to bad judgment or ignorance or inattention)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A break or intermission in the occurrence of something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Context example:

a lapse of three weeks between letters

Hypernyms ("lapse" is a kind of...):

break; intermission; interruption; pause; suspension (a time interval during which there is a temporary cessation of something)

Derivation:

lapse (end, at least for a long time)

lapse (pass by)

lapse (let slip)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A failure to maintain a higher state

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

backsliding; lapse; lapsing; relapse; relapsing; reversion; reverting

Hypernyms ("lapse" is a kind of...):

failure (an act that fails)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "lapse"):

recidivism (habitual relapse into crime)

Derivation:

lapse (go back to bad behavior)

lapse (drop to a lower level, as in one's morals or standards)

• LAPSE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they lapse    ... he / she / it lapses   
Past simple: lapsed   
Past participle: lapsed   
-ing form: lapsing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Pass into a specified state or condition

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

lapse; pass; sink

Context example:

He sank into nirvana

Hypernyms (to "lapse" is one way to...):

move (go or proceed from one point to another)

Sentence frames:

Something is ----ing PP
Somebody ----s PP

Sense 2

Meaning:

End, at least for a long time

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

The correspondence lapsed

Hypernyms (to "lapse" is one way to...):

cease; end; finish; stop; terminate (have an end, in a temporal, spatial, or quantitative sense; either spatial or metaphorical)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

lapse (a break or intermission in the occurrence of something)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Drop to a lower level, as in one's morals or standards

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

backslide; lapse

Hypernyms (to "lapse" is one way to...):

drop away; drop off; fall away; slip (get worse)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

lapse (a failure to maintain a higher state)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Go back to bad behavior

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Synonyms:

fall back; lapse; recidivate; regress; relapse; retrogress

Context example:

Those who recidivate are often minor criminals

Hypernyms (to "lapse" is one way to...):

regress; retrovert; return; revert; turn back (go back to a previous state)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

lapse (a failure to maintain a higher state)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Let slip

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Context example:

He lapsed his membership

Hypernyms (to "lapse" is one way to...):

forego; forfeit; forgo; give up; throw overboard; waive (lose (s.th.) or lose the right to (s.th.) by some error, offense, or crime)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

lapse (a break or intermission in the occurrence of something)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Pass by

Classified under:

Verbs of walking, flying, swimming

Synonyms:

elapse; glide by; go along; go by; lapse; pass; slide by; slip away; slip by

Context example:

three years elapsed

Hypernyms (to "lapse" is one way to...):

advance; go on; march on; move on; pass on; progress (move forward, also in the metaphorical sense)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "lapse"):

fell; fly; vanish (pass away rapidly)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something is ----ing PP

Derivation:

lapse (a break or intermission in the occurrence of something)

 Context examples 

“Tell me of yourself. You have hardly ever told me of your own life, in all this lapse of time!”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

For his own honour stands so high that he could not forget or pardon a lapse in another.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I took no note of the lapse of time—of the change from morning to noon, from noon to evening.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

"You needn't be so rude, it's only a 'lapse of lingy', as Mr. Davis says," retorted Amy, finishing Jo with her Latin.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

These are the reflections of the first days; but when the lapse of time proves the reality of the evil, then the actual bitterness of grief commences.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

However, it's wrong to link these lapses with memory loss.

(Exercise May Help Seniors with Word, Memory Problems, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Possibly it was the fraction of a second, but I had no knowledge of how long an interval had lapsed before I was myself again.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Renfield seemed himself aware of having made a lapse, for he hurried on, as though to distract my attention from it:—I don't take any stock at all in such matters.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He plodded on silently for ten minutes, and then, as though there had been no lapse in his speech, he added: And no ground covered, and it's too cold to travel.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

They used time-lapse crystallography to capture snapshots at different time points during assembly.

(Structural Snapshots of Damaged DNA, NIH)