lapse
    n 1: a mistake resulting from inattention [syn: oversight,
         lapse]
    2: a break or intermission in the occurrence of something; "a
       lapse of three weeks between letters"
    3: a failure to maintain a higher state [syn: backsliding,
       lapse, lapsing, relapse, relapsing, reversion,
       reverting]
    v 1: pass into a specified state or condition; "He sank into
         nirvana" [syn: sink, pass, lapse]
    2: end, at least for a long time; "The correspondence lapsed"
    3: drop to a lower level, as in one's morals or standards [syn:
       lapse, backslide]
    4: go back to bad behavior; "Those who recidivate are often
       minor criminals" [syn: relapse, lapse, recidivate,
       regress, retrogress, fall back]
    5: let slip; "He lapsed his membership"
    6: pass by; "three years elapsed" [syn: elapse, lapse,
       pass, slip by, glide by, slip away, go by, slide
       by, go along]

Lapse \Lapse\, v. t.
   1. To let slip; to permit to devolve on another; to allow to
      pass.
      [1913 Webster]

            An appeal may be deserted by the appellant's lapsing
            the term of law.                      --Ayliffe.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To surprise in a fault or error; hence, to surprise or
      catch, as an offender. [Obs.]
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            For which, if be lapsed in this place,
            I shall pay dear.                     --Shak.
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Lapse \Lapse\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Lapsed; p. pr. & vb. n.
   Lapsing.]
   1. To pass slowly and smoothly downward, backward, or away;
      to slip downward, backward, or away; to glide; -- mostly
      restricted to figurative uses.
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            A tendency to lapse into the barbarity of those
            northern nations from whom we are descended.
                                                  --Swift.
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            Homer, in his characters of Vulcan and Thersites,
            has lapsed into the burlesque character. --Addison.
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   2. To slide or slip in moral conduct; to fail in duty; to
      fall from virtue; to deviate from rectitude; to commit a
      fault by inadvertence or mistake.
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            To lapse in fullness
            Is sorer than to lie for need.        --Shak.
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   3. (Law)
      (a) To fall or pass from one proprietor to another, or
          from the original destination, by the omission,
          negligence, or failure of some one, as a patron, a
          legatee, etc.
      (b) To become ineffectual or void; to fall.
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                If the archbishop shall not fill it up within
                six months ensuing, it lapses to the king.
                                                  --Ayliffe.
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Lapse \Lapse\ (l[a^]ps), n. [L. lapsus, fr. labi, p. p. lapsus,
   to slide, to fall: cf. F. laps. See Sleep.]
   1. A gliding, slipping, or gradual falling; an unobserved or
      imperceptible progress or passing away,; -- restricted
      usually to immaterial things, or to figurative uses.
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            The lapse to indolence is soft and imperceptible.
                                                  --Rambler.
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            Bacon was content to wait the lapse of long
            centuries for his expected revenue of fame. --I.
                                                  Taylor.
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   2. A slip; an error; a fault; a failing in duty; a slight
      deviation from truth or rectitude.
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            To guard against those lapses and failings to which
            our infirmities daily expose us.      --Rogers.
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   3. (Law) The termination of a right or privilege through
      neglect to exercise it within the limited time, or through
      failure of some contingency; hence, the devolution of a
      right or privilege.
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   4. (Theol.) A fall or apostasy.
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LAPSE

    A single assignment language for the Manchester
   dataflow machine.

   ["A Single Assignment Language for Data Flow Computing",
   J.R.W. Glauert, M.Sc Diss, Victoria U Manchester, 1978].

   (1994-12-21)

LAPSE, eccl. law. The transfer, by forfeiture, of a right or power to 
present or collate to a vacant benefice, from, a person vested with such 
right, to another, in consequence of some act of negligence of the former. 
Ayl. Parerg. 331.