[f. LAPSE v. + -ING1.] The action of the vb. LAPSE. a. Gliding or dropping of water. b. In immaterial sense: The action or process of sinking or dropping; also, of falling to (a public body) as an acquisition.
1663. J. Spencer, Prodigies (1665), 145. The lapsing of that People to the grossest ignorance.
1820. L. Hunt, Indicator, No. 24 (1822), I. 187. In the notes of the birds and the lapsing of the water-fall.
1862. Goulburn, Pers. Relig., I. I. iv. 64. To reduce prayer to a form…. But how to prevent … its lapsing into a form?
1884. H. Spencer, in Pop. Sci. Monthly, XXIV. 727. The law-makers who provided for the ultimate lapsing of French railways to the state.
