Lapse vs. Elapse

Lapsenoun

A temporary failure; a slip.

Elapseverb

To pass or move by.

‘He allowed a month to elapse before beginning the work.’; ‘Several days elapsed before they met again.’;

Lapsenoun

A decline or fall in standards.

Elapseverb

To slip or glide away; to pass away silently, as time; - used chiefly in reference to time.

‘Eight days elapsed; at length a pilgrim came.’;

Lapsenoun

A pause in continuity.

Elapseverb

pass by;

‘three years elapsed’;

Lapsenoun

An interval of time between events.

Elapseverb

(of time) pass or go by

‘weeks elapsed before anyone was charged with the attack’;

Lapsenoun

A termination of a right etc., through disuse or neglect.

Lapsenoun

(meteorology) A marked decrease in air temperature with increasing altitude because the ground is warmer than the surrounding air.

Lapsenoun

(legal) A common-law rule that if the person to whom property is willed were to die before the testator, then the gift would be ineffective.

Lapsenoun

(theology) A fall or apostasy.

Lapseverb

(intransitive) To fall away gradually; to subside.

Lapseverb

(intransitive) To fall into error or heresy.

Lapseverb

To slip into a bad habit that one is trying to avoid.

Lapseverb

(intransitive) To become void.

Lapseverb

To fall or pass from one proprietor to another, or from the original destination, by the omission, negligence, or failure of somebody, such as a patron or legatee.

Lapsenoun

A gliding, slipping, or gradual falling; an unobserved or imperceptible progress or passing away,; - restricted usually to immaterial things, or to figurative uses.

‘The lapse to indolence is soft and imperceptible.’; ‘Bacon was content to wait the lapse of long centuries for his expected revenue of fame.’;

Lapsenoun

A slip; an error; a fault; a failing in duty; a slight deviation from truth or rectitude.

‘To guard against those lapses and failings to which our infirmities daily expose us.’;

Lapsenoun

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.

Lapsenoun

A fall or apostasy.

Lapseverb

To pass slowly and smoothly downward, backward, or away; to slip downward, backward, or away; to glide; - mostly restricted to figurative uses.

‘A tendency to lapse into the barbarity of those northern nations from whom we are descended.’; ‘Homer, in his characters of Vulcan and Thersites, has lapsed into the burlesque character.’;

Lapseverb

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.

‘To lapse in fullnessIs sorer than to lie for need.’;

Lapseverb

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.

‘If the archbishop shall not fill it up within six months ensuing, it lapses to the king.’;

Lapseverb

To let slip; to permit to devolve on another; to allow to pass.

‘An appeal may be deserted by the appellant's lapsing the term of law.’;

Lapseverb

To surprise in a fault or error; hence, to surprise or catch, as an offender.

‘For which, if be lapsed in this place,I shall pay dear.’;

Lapsenoun

a mistake resulting from inattention

Lapsenoun

a break or intermission in the occurrence of something;

‘a lapse of three weeks between letters’;

Lapsenoun

a failure to maintain a higher state

Lapseverb

pass into a specified state or condition;

‘He sank into Nirvana’;

Lapseverb

end, at least for a long time;

‘The correspondence lapsed’;

Lapseverb

drop to a lower level, as in one's morals or standards

Lapseverb

go back to bad behavior;

‘Those who recidivate are often minor criminals’;

Lapseverb

let slip;

‘He lapsed his membership’;

Lapseverb

pass by;

‘three years elapsed’;

Lapsenoun

a brief or temporary failure of concentration, memory, or judgement

‘a lapse of concentration in the second set cost her the match’;

Lapsenoun

a decline from previously high standards

‘tracing his lapse into petty crime’;

Lapsenoun

the termination of a right or privilege through disuse or failure to follow appropriate procedures.

Lapsenoun

an interval or passage of time

‘there was a considerable lapse of time between the two events’;

Lapseverb

(of a right, privilege, or agreement) become invalid because it is not used, claimed, or renewed; expire

‘he let his membership of CND lapse’;

Lapseverb

(of a state or activity) fail to be maintained; come to an end

‘if your diet has lapsed it's time you revived it’;

Lapseverb

cease to follow the rules and practices of a religion or doctrine

‘many Christians in Britain have lapsed’;

Lapseverb

pass gradually into (an inferior state or condition)

‘the country has lapsed into chaos’;

Lapseverb

revert to (a previous or more familiar style of speaking or behaviour)

‘the girls lapsed into French’;