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.


 lapsing
      n : a failure to maintain a higher state [syn: backsliding, lapse,
           relapse, relapsing, reversion, reverting]