lapse
Americannoun
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lapses
plural
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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.
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a slip or error, often of a trivial sort; failure.
a lapse of memory.
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an interval or passage of time; elapsed period.
a lapse of ten minutes before the program resumed.
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a moral fall, as from rectitude or virtue.
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a fall or decline to a lower grade, condition, or degree; descent; regression.
a lapse into savagery.
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the act of falling, slipping, sliding, etc., slowly or by degrees.
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a falling into disuse.
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Insurance. discontinuance of coverage resulting from nonpayment of a premium; termination of a policy.
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Law. the termination of a right or privilege through neglect to exercise it or through failure of some contingency.
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Meteorology. lapse rate.
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Archaic. a gentle, downward flow, as of water.
verb (used without object)
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lapses,
present (3rd person singular)
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lapsed,
past participle, past
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lapsing
present participle
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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.
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to come to an end; stop.
We let our subscription to that magazine lapse.
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to fall, slip, or sink; subside.
to lapse into silence.
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to fall into disuse.
The custom lapsed after a period of time.
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to deviate or abandon principles, beliefs, etc..
to lapse into heresy.
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to fall spiritually, as an apostate.
to lapse from grace.
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to pass away, as time; elapse.
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Law. to become void, as a legacy to someone who dies before the testator.
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to cease being in force; terminate.
Your insurance policy will lapse after 30 days.
noun
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a drop in standard of an isolated or temporary nature
a lapse of justice
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a break in occurrence, usage, etc
a lapse of five weeks between letters
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a gradual decline or a drop to a lower degree, condition, or state
a lapse from high office
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a moral fall
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law the termination of some right, interest, or privilege, as by neglecting to exercise it or through failure of some contingency
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insurance the termination of coverage following a failure to pay the premiums
verb
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to drop in standard or fail to maintain a norm
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to decline gradually or fall in status, condition, etc
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to be discontinued, esp through negligence or other failure
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(usually foll by into) to drift or slide (into a condition)
to lapse into sleep
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(often foll by from) to turn away (from beliefs or norms)
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law (of a devise or bequest) to become void, as on the beneficiary's predeceasing the testator
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(of time) to slip away
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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lapsesimple
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lapsessimple
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have lapsedperfect
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has lapsedperfect
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am lapsingprogressive
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are lapsingprogressive
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is lapsingprogressive
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have been lapsingperfect progressive
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has been lapsingperfect progressive
Past
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lapsedsimple
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had lapsedperfect
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was lapsingprogressive
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were lapsingprogressive
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had been lapsingperfect progressive
Future
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
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.
Vocabulary lists containing lapse
The SAT: Multiple-Meaning Words, List 1
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List 4
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"The Landlady" by Roald Dahl
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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:
The Escape Artist: In many of these recent cases, the models were given access to the internet, a surprising lapse from the testers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
Goddard said the department let its previous operating agreement with Flock lapse last week due to lingering questions over who owns the data collected by the company’s plate readers and who has access to it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
Bouchier wafted unnecessarily outside the off stump, Heather Knight played around a straight one from Sayali Satghare for six and Jones suffered a lapse in concentration to prod spinner Sneh Rana to short leg.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026
Kroencke, a medic, approached the woman and attempted to soothe her, concerned that she might lapse into shock.
From Slate ● Jul. 7, 2026
I can be free of words now, I can lapse back into wordlessness, I can sink back into the rhythms of transience as if into bed.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
If there is a mortgage, lenders generally require insurance to remain active and may impose costly force-placed insurance if coverage lapses.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026
Rangers were flailing in the opening 45 minutes as Jagiellonia cut them open with ease, capitalising on numerous lapses in concentration.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
Regulators often inquire about internal controls on information and have penalized banks when they have found lapses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 21, 2026
Shohei Ohtani hits his 300th homer, Justin Wrobleski pitches seven strong innings, but defensive lapses lead to Dodgers’ loss to Rockies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 2026
“When he began to talk again, it was with greater precision. And now his lapses are very few. His corrections and apologies are very prompt. And his good humor is unfailing.”
From "The Giver" by Lois Lowry
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
When 702 faced a similar deadline in April 2024, two major communications providers said they would cease turning over the data if it lapsed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 11, 2026
Suozzi’s ties to The Fellowship don’t appear to have lapsed at any point, even during his year out of Congress.
From Salon ● May 29, 2026
Then he lapsed back into the crowd sounds.
From This Side of Wild by Gary Paulsen
Washington Metro demonstrated how a public work can be both infrastructure and symbol without lapsing into overblown architectural propaganda.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 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
As a highly-touted five-star talent with NFL aspirations, he never made the switch to baseball either, his draft rights with the Dodgers lapsing after he transferred to Florida State for the 2024 football season.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2025
“There’s a black man with brains gone to bed,” Malcolm X told me once, briefly lapsing into his old vernacular.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
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.
