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

In a lapse of concentration, and despite the VAR image showing Diaz was onside, England said "check complete".

From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2026

Yet, a last-second mental lapse Sunday by one of the five professional sports franchises Johnson co-owns prompted him to tweet the equivalent of a distress signal.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2026

But Congress allowed the biodiesel tax credit to lapse in 2024.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 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

If you dishonored your ancestors in some fashion, the only way to atone for that lapse was to consult with a traditional healer or tribal elder, who communicated with the ancestors and conveyed profound apologies.

From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela

Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves are helping the Lakers score at an elite clip, but a loss to Portland on Tuesday exposed the team’s defensive lapses.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2026

There were familiar lapses in concentration defensively that gave Greece opportunities to pounce.

From BBC ● Oct. 9, 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

Either way, aside from the few lapses in sanity when I considered revealing my true feelings to Evan, I was mostly desperate to keep my love for him under wraps.

From "Americanized" by Sara Saedi

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

Federal agents are using flight manifests to arrest travelers with lapsed visas, drawing objections over safety and protocol.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 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

Twenty-five years seemed to have lapsed between his handing me the letter and my grasping its message.

From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison

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

“Labyrinth” is fortified with trompe l’oeil wonders, but none are as powerful as a dream sequence resulting from Sarah lapsing into a hallucination after she bites into an enchanted peach.

From Salon ● Jan. 24, 2026

I can’t eat pork or shellfish, so whatever falls within the electric fence, my lapsing Judaism.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2025

Grown-ups flinch like misbehaving kids, guiltily lapsing into silence.

From "The 57 Bus" by Dashka Slater

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