lapse /ˈlæps/
 過失,流逝,失效(vi.)犯錯,墮落,退步,消失,流逝(vt.)使失效


 lapse
 失誤


 lapse
 失誤


 Lapse n.
 1. 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.   --Rambler.
    Bacon was content to wait the lapse of long centuries for his expected revenue of fame.   --I. Taylor.
 2. 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.   --Rogers.
 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.
 4. Theol. A fall or apostasy.


 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.
    A tendency to lapse into the barbarity of those northern nations from whom we are descended.   --Swift.
    Homer, in his characters of Vulcan and Thersites, has lapsed into the burlesque character.   --Addison.
 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.
 To lapse in fullness
 Is sorer than to lie for need.   --Shak.
 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.
    If the archbishop shall not fill it up within six months ensuing, it lapses to the king.   --Ayliffe.


 Lapse, v. t.
 1. 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.   --Ayliffe.
 2. To surprise in a fault or error; hence, to surprise or catch, as an offender. [Obs.]
 For which, if be lapsed in this place,
 I shall pay dear.   --Shak.

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 lapse
      n 1: a mistake resulting from inattention [syn: oversight]
      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, lapsing,
          relapse, relapsing, reversion, reverting]
      v 1: pass into a specified state or condition; "He sank into
           Nirvana" [syn: sink, pass]
      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:
          backslide]
      4: go back to bad behavior; "Those who recidivate are often
         minor criminals" [syn: relapse, recidivate, regress,
          retrogress, fall back]
      5: let slip; "He lapsed his membership"
      6: pass by; "three years elapsed" [syn: elapse, pass, {slip
         by, glide by, slip away, go by, slide by, {go
         along]