elapse
Americanverb (used without object)
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elapses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
elapsed,
past participle, past
-
elapsing
present participle
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
elapsesimple
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elapsessimple
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have elapsedperfect
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has elapsedperfect
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am elapsingprogressive
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are elapsingprogressive
-
is elapsingprogressive
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have been elapsingperfect progressive
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has been elapsingperfect progressive
Past
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elapsedsimple
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had elapsedperfect
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was elapsingprogressive
-
were elapsingprogressive
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had been elapsingperfect progressive
Future
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.
Vocabulary lists containing elapse
A Doll's House
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"The Math Instinct," Vocabulary from the math essay
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Beowulf: A New Telling
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
You may even die before those nearly two decades elapse, so you would have lost out on all that extra loot.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 11, 2026
But the repercussions will reverberate for some time: at least 12 months must elapse from the last case to regain the important fever-free status.
From Barron's ● Dec. 2, 2025
Years elapse in the course of a few pages, and it’s 1942 in Nazi-occupied France.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 20, 2025
"It therefore seems likely that many years will elapse before any such Crispr-based therapy becomes routine - even assuming that it can be shown to be effective."
From BBC ● Mar. 19, 2024
Whoever spotted Asmodeus was to report, after letting one minute elapse, to Matthias, who was positioned roughly at the center of the line.
From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques
It is a race to 106 - and the more time elapses, the more chance Infantino can persuade his former allies this was just an aberration.
From BBC ● Aug. 1, 2026
As the pair do some sightseeing, share meals and otherwise fill their days with prosaic acts, more than 30 minutes of screen time elapses in what amounts to stage-setting.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 19, 2026
Disciplinary complaints against a lawyer actually have no statute of limitations, although the more time that elapses, the more difficult it will be to prove/investigate.
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 2, 2026
They want the debate to occur inside a TV studio, with microphones that automatically cut off when a speaker’s time limit elapses.
From New York Times ● May 15, 2024
But, alas! only a very short time elapses before his purse empties.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 120, October, 1867. by Various
In theory, the two years that have elapsed since then should have made the defender bigger and stronger.
From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026
Consideration attributable to the elapsed portion of the reference period will be settled in shares, while the remaining consideration will be settled in cash, the company said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026
A few seconds elapsed after the cars passed out of frame.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 11, 2026
IHR said Mohammadi had 20 days to appeal under the law but warned there had in the past been cases of people being executed before this period elapsed.
From Barron's ● Feb. 12, 2026
Some time elapsed before, with all my efforts, I could comprehend my scholars and their nature.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
French data comes a day after figures showed German inflation climbed to 2.8% this month, mostly on the back of energy prices, as well as the elapsing of a fuel tax-rebate program.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
With years often elapsing between the incident and inquest, Alexander said inquests often open wounds and “re-traumatize” the families.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 15, 2023
But he says that this was impossible because the allotted six months began elapsing as soon as the estate was put up for sale.
From BBC ● Oct. 18, 2023
“That time elapsing, in itself, really showed us our own shame.”
From New York Times ● Dec. 15, 2021
The time elapsing between eating the implicated food and the onset of the earliest symptoms is usually between twelve and forty-eight hours, but may be much less.
From Food Poisoning by Edwin Oakes Jordan
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
