[
US
/ˈɫæps/
]
[ UK /lˈæps/ ]
[ UK /lˈæps/ ]
NOUN
-
a break or intermission in the occurrence of something
a lapse of three weeks between letters - a mistake resulting from inattention
- a failure to maintain a higher state
VERB
- drop to a lower level, as in one's morals or standards
-
let slip
He lapsed his membership -
pass into a specified state or condition
He sank into nirvana -
end, at least for a long time
The correspondence lapsed -
pass by
three years elapsed -
go back to bad behavior
Those who recidivate are often minor criminals
How To Use lapse In A Sentence
- He pulled himself up and stumbled to the bathroom, where he turned on the cold tap and collapsed at the bottom of the shower, barely awake.
- In the course of what I have to say, the distinction between morality as convenience and morality as ideal will virtually collapse, along with a good deal else.
- Anybody who has tried to follow a rigorous diet will know how easy it is to lapse back into bad habits. Times, Sunday Times
- We require a quorum of 100 students to proceed - and the motion lapses if it isn't obtained.
- A time-lapse camera recorded the entire event, compressing it into a 100-minute film that became a work in its own right.
- If it were a little more curved it would collapse, imploding on itself in a cosmic crunch; a little less curved, and every star, planet, sun and galaxy would fly apart from each other and so would every atom of matter in each of them.
- Indeed, so many of us now possess a handset that mobile phone sales have collapsed.
- The question is, who is liable for the cost of repairs if, for example, an undetected slow leak in a geyser causes a ceiling collapse and water damage to interior paint work, carpets and furniture?
- The effect would be a level of military involvement that would serve to collapse the distinction between inspection and invasion/occupation.
- This construction of a new world order comes from a naïive and untraveled President, emboldened in his ignorance by advisors who have been plotting an aggressive Pax Americana ever since the Soviet bloc's collapse.
