lapse

Etymology

From Middle French laps, from Latin lāpsus, from lābī (“to slip”). Doublet of lapsus.

noun

1. A temporary failure; a slip.
   memory lapse
   lapse of judgment
   lapse in security
   lapse in concentration
   Now, tho’ this Scripture may be usefully understood and apply’d by us as a Caution to guard against those Lapses and Failings to which our Infirmities daily expose us 1735, John Rogers, Nineteen Sermons on several occasions, London: W. Innys and R. Manby, →OCLC, page 108
2. A decline or fall in standards.
   The lapse to indolence is soft and imperceptible, because it is only a mere cessation of activity September 10, 1751, Samuel Johnson, “No. CLV”, in The Rambler, →OCLC
3. A pause in continuity.
4. An interval of time between events.
   Bacon was content to wait the lapse of long centuries for his expected revenue of fame 1860, Isaac Taylor, Ultimate Civilization and Other Essays, London: Bell and Daldy, →OCLC, page 309
5. A termination of a right etc., through disuse or neglect.
6. (meteorology) A marked decrease in air temperature with increasing altitude because the ground is warmer than the surrounding air.
7. (law) A common-law rule that if the person to whom property is willed were to die before the testator, then the gift would be ineffective.
8. (theology) A fall or apostasy.

verb

1. (intransitive) To fall away gradually; to subside.
   This perpetual 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 whom we are descended 1841, Jonathan Swift, “A letter to the Lord High Treasurer”, in The Works of Jonathan Swift, London: Henry Washbourne, →OCLC, page 288
   Homer, however, in his characters of Vulcan and Thersites, in his story of Mars and Venus, in his behaviour of Irus and in other passages has been observed to have lapsed into the Burlesque character, and to have departed from that serious Air which seems essential to the magnificence of an Epic Poem. 1730, Joseph Addison, The Works of the Late Right Honorable Joseph Addison, Esq., volume the third, London: Jacob Tonson, →OCLC
2. (intransitive) To fall into error or heresy.
3. To slip into a bad habit that one is trying to avoid.
4. (intransitive) To become void.
   The connections at Lewisham were never built, and the powers of the Act lapsed; but the spur at Nunhead was partly constructed. 1946 November and December, “The Why and The Wherefore: Abandoned Embankment at Nunhead, S.R.”, in Railway Magazine, page 392
5. 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.
   ...and if the archbishop shall not fill it up within six Months ensuing, it lapses to the King, but according to the Canon Law to the Pope. 1726, John Ayliffe, Parergon Juris Canonici Anglicani, London: Printed for the Author by D. Leach, →OCLC, page 116