▪ I. elapse, v.
(ɪˈlæps)
[f. L. ēlaps- ppl. stem of ēlābi to slip or glide away: see lapse.]
1. intr. Of time, a period of time: To slip by, pass away, expire. (Perfect tenses occas. with be.)
| 1644 [see elapsed ppl. a. 1]. 1657 Burton Diary (1828) II. 114 The Act was to commence at the 1st of February last, which time was elapsed. 1758 Johnson Idler No. 10 ¶9 The time elapses without a revolution. 1792 T. Jefferson Writ. (1859) III. 390 Fourteen months were now elapsed. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 229 Twenty-seven years had elapsed since the Restoration. 1876 Green Short Hist. viii. §10 (1882) 568 Three years..were to elapse between the assembling of one Parliament and another. |
† 2. trans. To suffer (time) to pass by. Obs.
| 1654 Cromwell Sp. 22 Jan., You have wholly elapsed your time. 1705 Lond. Gaz. 4105/1 Fulke Emes Gent. and others, who had Elapsed their times..for paying their Money. 1709 Tatler No. 109 ¶6 Dead Persons, who have..elaps'd the proper Time of their Interrment. |
† 3. intr. a. To lapse, sink insensibly into (a condition). b. To slip away (from memory).
| 1742 Johnson Wks. IV. 484 Others..have elapsed into idleness and security. 1762–9 Falconer Shipwr. iii. 544 Swift from their minds elapsed all dangers past. |
4. nonce-use. To flow gently from.
| 1839 Bailey Festus (1848) 66/1 One there was From whose sweet lips elapsed as from a well, Continuously truths which made my soul..fertile with rich thoughts. |
Hence eˈlapsing vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1720 Wodrow Corr. (1843) II. 514 To take the oaths before the elapsing of the day. 1830 Alford in Life (1873) 59 The world is a channel into which God lets a partial and elapsing stream of the great deep of eternity. |
▪ II. eˈlapse, n. arch.
[f. prec. vb.: cf. lapse n.]
† 1. A flowing out or away; fig. an emanation, effluence (of divine grace, etc.).
| a 1677 Barrow Serm. (1686) III. 426 The sweet elapses of spiritual consolation in devotion. a 1703 Pomfret Rem. (1724) 9 Some nobler Bard, O Sacred Power..th' Elapses to receive. 1811 Pinkerton Petral. II. 370 The under current continues to flow; so that upon its complete elapse, the space remains void. |
2. Expiration, lapse, passing away (of time).
| 1793 A. Seward in Parr's Wks. (1828) VIII. 464 The distinctions of Whig and Tory..have lost their force during the elapse of many years. 1800 Essay on Ramsay in Ramsay's Wks. (1848) I. 70 The elapse of a few months justified the poet's foresight. c 1800 K. White Time 275 The past is..an elapse Which hath no mensuration. 1823 Monthly Mag. LV. 517 They considered Daniel's seventy weeks of years on the brink of elapse. 1883 F. W. Potter French Celeb. ii. 109 After an elapse of two decades. 1988 Mod. document, References to people, institutions, nations,..and so on, which have been invalidated by the elapse of time since the Dictionary was edited. |