lapsing

Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)

1.To pass slowly and smoothly downward, backward, or away; to slip downward, backward, or away; to glide; -- mostly restricted to figurative uses. [1913 Webster]

A tendency to lapse into the barbarity of those northern nations from whom we are descended.— Swift.[1913 Webster]

Homer, in his characters of Vulcan and Thersites, has lapsed into the burlesque character.— Addison.[1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

To lapse in fullness Is sorer than to lie for need.— Shak.[1913 Webster]

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. [1913 Webster]

If the archbishop shall not fill it up within six months ensuing, it lapses to the king.— Ayliffe.[1913 Webster]