elapse
Americanverb (used without object)
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elapses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
elapsed,
past participle, past
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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
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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
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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
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
MPs have a time limit to vote during a division and doorkeepers are instructed to lock the doors to the voting lobby once this elapses.
From BBC ● Mar. 19, 2024
Daphne must have quick ears, for a full half-minute elapses before the door opens and a figure appears in the dim light at the end of the room.
From A Safety Match by Hay, Ian
Sometimes, the differential is simply about the time elapsed: A stunning silver pitcher by the aforementioned Revere with accompanying documentation was estimated to bring—at auction, as the experts always caution—between $25,000 and $60,000.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026
By the time the agents shoved me into that unmarked SUV, three minutes and 30 seconds had elapsed.
From Slate ● Jan. 23, 2026
While two centuries may have elapsed, "the characters and the emotional journeys that they go on really feel like they haven't aged at all," she says.
From BBC ● Dec. 13, 2025
I had tried to telegraph to the group that coming back was not a given, and I think the fact that a long time that elapsed also made that clear.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 2, 2025
I wasn't even sure how much time had elapsed since the judge's ruling, as I had never received the order.
From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson
So we’re within a month now of the time elapsing on us.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 24, 2025
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
"When the time starts elapsing because you can't get to someone, we know their outcomes will be worse - and that really gets to us."
From BBC ● Nov. 29, 2023
“That time elapsing, in itself, really showed us our own shame.”
From New York Times ● Dec. 15, 2021
Results for each class were treated separately so that the time elapsing since graduation was not a factor in the results.
From Vocational Psychology: Its Problems and Methods by Hollingworth, Harry L.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
