lapse

  • noun 1 a brief failure of concentration, memory, or judgement. 2 a decline from previously high standards. 3 an interval of time. 4 Law the termination of a right or privilege through disuse or failure to follow appropriate procedures.

  • verb 1 (of a right, privilege, or agreement) become invalid because it is not used, claimed, or renewed. 2 cease to follow the rules and practices of a religion or doctrine. 3 (lapse into) pass gradually into (a different, often worse, state or condition).

  — ORIGIN Latin lapsus, from labi ‘to slip or fall’.

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