Words / C1

LAPS/læps/

A lapse is a short failure of memory, attention, or behaviour: a lapse of concentration, a security lapse. Also the ending of a right (the policy lapsed). Slip and mistake are everyday; collapse is bigger. Do not call a year-long gap a lapse as if it were a blink.

Meaning

A short failure of attention, memory, or good behaviour; also the ending of a right.

Examples

• “A lapse in the badge log, not the slogan, closed the lab.”
• “Slip is everyday. Relapse is fall back into illness or a habit. Elapse is time passing — a lookalike. If the insurance lapsed, the cover ended. A systematic gap is a failure, not a tiny lapse.”

Good to know

A slip; also when something expires. Everyday: slip / mistake. Mix-up: elapse (time passes). A long, systematic gap is not a blink.

Near in meaning

slip

New