[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.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 228. 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 Elapsing vbl. sb. 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.
