Result from Foreign Dictionaries (4 entries found)

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]: Lapse \Lapse\, v. t. 1. To let slip; to permit to devolve on another; to allow to pass. [1913 Webster] An appeal may be deserted by the appellant's lapsing the term of law. --Ayliffe. [1913 Webster] 2. To surprise in a fault or error; hence, to surprise or catch, as an offender. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] For which, if be lapsed in this place, I shall pay dear. --Shak. [1913 Webster] From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]: Lapse \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. [1913 Webster] A tendency to lapse into the barbarity of those northern nations from whom we are descended. --Swift. [1913 Webster] Homer, in his characters of Vulcan and Thersites, has lapsed into the burlesque character. --Addison. [1913 Webster] 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. [1913 Webster] To lapse in fullness Is sorer than to lie for need. --Shak. [1913 Webster] 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. [1913 Webster] If the archbishop shall not fill it up within six months ensuing, it lapses to the king. --Ayliffe. [1913 Webster] From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]: Lapse \Lapse\ (l[a^]ps), 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. [1913 Webster] The lapse to indolence is soft and imperceptible. --Rambler. [1913 Webster] Bacon was content to wait the lapse of long centuries for his expected revenue of fame. --I. Taylor. [1913 Webster] 2. A slip; an error; a fault; a failing in duty; a slight deviation from truth or rectitude. [1913 Webster] To guard against those lapses and failings to which our infirmities daily expose us. --Rogers. [1913 Webster] 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. [1913 Webster] 4. (Theol.) A fall or apostasy. [1913 Webster] From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]: lapse n 1: a mistake resulting from inattention [syn: {oversight}, {lapse}] 2: a break or intermission in the occurrence of something; "a lapse of three weeks between letters" 3: a failure to maintain a higher state [syn: {backsliding}, {lapse}, {lapsing}, {relapse}, {relapsing}, {reversion}, {reverting}] v 1: pass into a specified state or condition; "He sank into nirvana" [syn: {sink}, {pass}, {lapse}] 2: end, at least for a long time; "The correspondence lapsed" 3: drop to a lower level, as in one's morals or standards [syn: {lapse}, {backslide}] 4: go back to bad behavior; "Those who recidivate are often minor criminals" [syn: {relapse}, {lapse}, {recidivate}, {regress}, {retrogress}, {fall back}] 5: let slip; "He lapsed his membership" 6: pass by; "three years elapsed" [syn: {elapse}, {lapse}, {pass}, {slip by}, {glide by}, {slip away}, {go by}, {slide by}, {go along}]