backsliding, lapse, lapsing, relapse, relapsing, reversion, reverting
(noun) a failure to maintain a higher state
Source: WordNet® 3.1
lapsing
present participle of lapse
lapsing (countable and uncountable, plural lapsings)
The act or process by which something lapses.
• Galpins, palings, sapling, spaling
Source: Wiktionary
Lapse, n. Etym: [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. 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)
Definition: 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.)
Definition: 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.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
26 November 2024
(noun) (music) playing in a different key from the key intended; moving the pitch of a piece of music upwards or downwards
Coffee dates back to the 9th century. Goat herders in Ethiopia noticed their goats seem to be “dancing” after eating berries from a particular shrub. They reported it to the local monastery, and a monk made a drink out of it. The monk found out he felt energized and kept him awake at night. That’s how the first coffee drink was born.
