Some 16th-century Italian clergymen tried to ban coffee because they believed it to be “satanic.” However, Pope Clement VII loved coffee so much that he lifted the ban and had coffee baptized in 1600.
backsliding, lapse, lapsing, relapse, relapsing, reversion, reverting
(noun) a failure to maintain a higher state
Source: WordNet® 3.1
relapsing
present participle of relapse
relapsing (plural relapsings)
(archaic) A relapse.
• espringal, graplines, pearlings, presignal, rapelings, spanglier
Source: Wiktionary
Re*laps"ing, a.
Definition: Marked by a relapse; falling back; tending to return to a former worse state. Relapsing fever (Med.), an acute, epidemic, contagious fever, which prevails also endemically in Ireland, Russia, and some other regions. It is marked by one or two remissions of the fever, by articular and muscular pains, and by the presence, during the paroxism of spiral bacterium (Spirochæte) in the blood. It is not usually fatal. Called also famine fever, and recurring fever.
Re*lapse" (r-lps"), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Relapsed (-lpst"); p. pr. & vb. n. Relapsing.] Etym: [L.relapsus, p. p. of relabi to slip back, to relapse; pref. re- re- + labi to fall, slip, slide. See Lapse.]
1. To slip or slide back, in a literal sense; to turn back. [Obs.] Dryden.
2. To slide or turn back into a former state or practice; to fall back from some condition attained; -- generally in a bad sense, as from a state of convalescence or amended condition; as, to relaps into a stupor, into vice, or into barbarism; -- sometimes in a good sense; as, to relapse into slumber after being disturbed. That task performed, [preachers] relapse into themselves. Cowper.
3. (Theol.)
Definition: To fall from Christian faith into paganism, heresy, or unbelief; to backslide. They enter into the justified state, and so continue all along, unless they relapse. Waterland.
Re*lapse", n. Etym: [For sense 2 cf. F. relaps. See Relapse, v.]
1. A sliding or falling back, especially into a former bad state, either of body or morals; backsliding; the state of having fallen back. Alas! from what high hope to what relapse Unlooked for are we fallen! Milton.
2. One who has relapsed, or fallen back, into error; a backlider; specifically, one who, after recanting error, returns to it again. [Obs.]
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
19 April 2025
(verb) grasp with the mind or develop an understanding of; “did you catch that allusion?”; “We caught something of his theory in the lecture”; “don’t catch your meaning”; “did you get it?”; “She didn’t get the joke”; “I just don’t get him”
Some 16th-century Italian clergymen tried to ban coffee because they believed it to be “satanic.” However, Pope Clement VII loved coffee so much that he lifted the ban and had coffee baptized in 1600.