elapse

American  

[ih-laps] / ɪˈlæps /

verb (used without object)

elapses, present (3rd person singular) elapsed, past participle, past elapsing present participle

1. (of time) to slip or pass by.

   Thirty minutes elapsed before the performance began.

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noun

1. the passage or termination of a period of time; lapse.

elapse British  

/ ɪˈlæps /

verb

1. (intr) (of time) to pass by

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• unelapsed
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• elapsing
  present
• elapsed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• elapse
  simple
• elapses
  simple
• have elapsed
  perfect
• has elapsed
  perfect
• am elapsing
  progressive
• are elapsing
  progressive
• is elapsing
  progressive
• have been elapsing
  perfect progressive
• has been elapsing
  perfect progressive

Past

• elapsed
  simple
• had elapsed
  perfect
• was elapsing
  progressive
• were elapsing
  progressive
• had been elapsing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will elapse
  simple
• will have elapsed
  perfect
• will be elapsing
  progressive
• will have been elapsing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of elapse

1635–45; < Latin ēlapsus (past participle of ēlābī to slip away), equivalent to e- e- ¹ + lab- slip + -sus for -tus past participle suffix

Explanation

When time passes by, you say it elapses. Four years elapse while you are in high school. Nine months elapse while you are in the womb. If two weeks have elapsed between your tennis lessons, there has been a two-week lapse between sessions. The word elapse comes from the Latin word elabi which means "to slip away." Time is one of those things that really does tend to slip away, unless you're sitting through a lecture on the nature of time. Then, it might feel like years elapse when really it is just a few minutes.

Example Sentences

Hanging at the end of a string—in fact, now resting inertly against his cheek—was the scarlet, black and yellow ringed body of a coral snake, the deadly elaps.

From Wings of the Wind by Harris, Credo Fitch

The only poisonous colubrine snakes in the New World are the ring- snakes, the coral-snakes of the genus elaps, which are found from the extreme southern United States southward to the Argentine.

From Through the Brazilian Wilderness by Roosevelt, Theodore

The terrible and much-feared elaps lemnicatus has the peculiar black bands divided into divisions of three by narrow yellow rings, thus exactly mimicking a harmless snake, the pliocerus elapoides, both of which live in Mexico.

From The Human Side of Animals by Dixon, Royal

Among these may be mentioned the deadly-poisonous snakes of the genus elaps of South America.

From The Human Side of Animals by Dixon, Royal

Smilax insisted—on I do not know what authority—that more dangerous than either of these is the beautiful little coral snake, elaps fulvius, whose victim becomes ravingly insane and invariably dies.

From Wings of the Wind by Harris, Credo Fitch

Related Words

• expire
• pass by
• transpire