lapse

American  

[laps] / læps /

noun

• lapses
  plural

1. an accidental or temporary decline or deviation from an expected or accepted condition or state; a temporary falling or slipping from a previous standard.

   a lapse of justice.

2. a slip or error, often of a trivial sort; failure.

   a lapse of memory.

3. an interval or passage of time; elapsed period.

   a lapse of ten minutes before the program resumed.

4. a moral fall, as from rectitude or virtue.

5. a fall or decline to a lower grade, condition, or degree; descent; regression.

   a lapse into savagery.

6. the act of falling, slipping, sliding, etc., slowly or by degrees.

7. a falling into disuse.

8. Insurance. discontinuance of coverage resulting from nonpayment of a premium; termination of a policy.

9. Law. the termination of a right or privilege through neglect to exercise it or through failure of some contingency.

10. Meteorology. lapse rate.

11. Archaic. a gentle, downward flow, as of water.

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verb (used without object)

• lapses,
  present (3rd person singular)
• lapsed,
  past participle,  past
• lapsing
  present participle

1. to fall or deviate from a previous standard; fail to maintain a normative level.

   Toward the end of the book the author lapsed into bad prose.

2. to come to an end; stop.

   We let our subscription to that magazine lapse.

3. to fall, slip, or sink; subside.

   to lapse into silence.

4. to fall into disuse.

   The custom lapsed after a period of time.

5. to deviate or abandon principles, beliefs, etc..

   to lapse into heresy.

6. to fall spiritually, as an apostate.

   to lapse from grace.

7. to pass away, as time; elapse.

8. Law. to become void, as a legacy to someone who dies before the testator.

9. to cease being in force; terminate.

   Your insurance policy will lapse after 30 days.

lapse British  

/ læps /

noun

1. a drop in standard of an isolated or temporary nature

   a lapse of justice

2. a break in occurrence, usage, etc

   a lapse of five weeks between letters

3. a gradual decline or a drop to a lower degree, condition, or state

   a lapse from high office

4. a moral fall

5. law the termination of some right, interest, or privilege, as by neglecting to exercise it or through failure of some contingency

6. insurance the termination of coverage following a failure to pay the premiums

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verb

1. to drop in standard or fail to maintain a norm

2. to decline gradually or fall in status, condition, etc

3. to be discontinued, esp through negligence or other failure

4. (usually foll by into) to drift or slide (into a condition)

   to lapse into sleep

5. (often foll by from) to turn away (from beliefs or norms)

6. law (of a devise or bequest) to become void, as on the beneficiary's predeceasing the testator

7. (of time) to slip away

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• lapser
  noun
• lapsable
  adjective
• lapsed
  adjective
• unlapsing
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• lapses
  plural

Participles

• lapsing
  present
• lapsed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• lapse
  simple
• lapses
  simple
• have lapsed
  perfect
• has lapsed
  perfect
• am lapsing
  progressive
• are lapsing
  progressive
• is lapsing
  progressive
• have been lapsing
  perfect progressive
• has been lapsing
  perfect progressive

Past

• lapsed
  simple
• had lapsed
  perfect
• was lapsing
  progressive
• were lapsing
  progressive
• had been lapsing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will lapse
  simple
• will have lapsed
  perfect
• will be lapsing
  progressive
• will have been lapsing
  perfect progressive

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Etymology

Origin of lapse

1520–30; < Latin lāpsus an error, slipping, failing, equivalent to lāb ( ī ) to slide, slip, fall, make a mistake + -sus, for -tus suffix of v. action

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Explanation

A lapse is a temporary slip, failure or break in continuity. If you’re normally polite, a lapse in manners could make you forget to say “please” and “thank you.” First used to imply a “slip of the memory,” the noun lapse evolved in the sixteenth century from the Latin lapsus, meaning “a slipping and falling, falling into error.” The connotation of “a moral slip” developed later, and the verb form came into existence even later than that. Behaving badly one day when you're usually on your best behavior is a lapse; behaving badly again after a short stint being well-mannered means you're lapsing back into nasty old habits.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

lapse lapses lapsed lapsing

Quinn and Daniels both took responsibility for the lapse.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2026

“The recovery has already survived three shocks: the squeeze on the Red Sea route, the lapse of the U.S.-Iran MoU, and the September attack on the East-West pipeline,” analysts at Kpler said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026

The summit’s most lamentable lapse was its failure to take even a small step toward putting guardrails on artificial intelligence.

From Slate ● Sep. 25, 2026

Sadly, the $2,000 payment the 82-year-old mother made to her neighbor for clearing her garage is symptomatic of a lapse in judgment about the basic concepts of money, value and reasonableness, compounded by emotion.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 24, 2026

But this new element—the innocent child—put his lapse beyond mitigation.

From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan

Venu Srinivasan, vice-chairman of Tata Trusts and a nominee director on Tata Sons' board, has sought a probe into alleged governance lapses at some trusts.

From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026

If Israel points to security lapses publicly, or shuts the flights for an extended period of time, this will be read by other airlines as signs that Dubai airport isn’t safe.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026

These analyses aim to gauge the capabilities of autonomous AI tools, as their lapses fuel fears of losing control over the technology.

From Barron's ● Oct. 1, 2026

Aging often makes itself visible in familiar ways, from gray hair and wrinkles to lapses in memory.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 4, 2026

Once she lapses into talking about Constantine without my even asking.

From "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett

But the CBP had said in a court filing this week that the pause had lapsed on September 30 and work would soon resume.

From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026

But when they lapsed at the end of 2025, the average subsidized enrollee’s cost to keep the same plan jumped about 114%.

From Salon ● Jul. 19, 2026

The life insurance company likely has no obligation to pay a lapsed policy.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 9, 2026

He suggested the country would charge ships crossing the key passage after the 60-day period in the agreement had lapsed.

From BBC ● Jun. 18, 2026

“The mother superior would never believe me. It’s a nest of lapsed bats here. But I wanted you to know the truth.”

From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García

But Mr. Blaževičius depicts with a deadpan ruthlessness the pull of complacency, the ease of lapsing back into lives full of compromise and myopia.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 20, 2026

However, this protection comes with limited upside given that it does not eliminate the risk of either poor long-term performance or the policy lapsing.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 1, 2026

But a failure to address the lapsing credits is expected to result in sticker shock across the state and the country.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 17, 2025

The release comes after the expiration of the 2018 Farm Bill extension on Sept. 30, 2023, leaving many programs under the bill vulnerable to lapsing as the year-end deadline approaches.

From Salon ● Nov. 20, 2024

They all mourned Rocky that way, by slipping, lapsing into the plans he had for college and for his football career.

From "Ceremony:" by Leslie Marmon Silko

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