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elapse

[ih-laps]

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verb (used without object)

(of time) to slip or pass by: Thirty minutes elapsed before the performance began.

noun

the passage or termination of a period of time; lapse.

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chat, to converse

to flee; abscond:

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Origin:
1635–45; < Latin ēlapsus (past participle of ēlābī to slip away), equivalent to e- e- + lab- slip + -sus for -tus past participle suffix

Related forms

un·e·lapsed, adjective

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Example Sentences

Commmonly, one month may elapse before a woman realizes that her birth-control method failed her.

Hours, perhaps days, will elapse before an opening can be drilled large enough to get the men out.

In the case of products aged in wood, several years could elapse before they were shipped.

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Collins

World English Dictionary

elapse (ɪˈlæps)

—vb
	(intr) (of time) to pass by

[C17: from Latin ēlābī to slip away, from lābī to slip, glide]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

elapse

1640s, from M.Fr. elapser, from L. elapsus, pp. of elabi "slip or glide away," from ex- "out, away" + labi "to slip, glide." The noun now corresponding to elapse is lapse. Related: Elapsed; elapsing.

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Related Words

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Matching Quote

"In the marriage ceremony, that moment when falling in love is replaced by the arduous drama of staying in love, the words "for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health,' til death us do part" set love in the temporal context in which it achieves its meaning. As time begins to elapse, one begins to love the other because they have shared the same experience, the same moments of duration. Selves may not intertwine but lives do, and shared memory becomes as much of a bond as the bond of the flesh. One might say shared memory is not love itself but a consequence of being in love; but in what people commonly say about long-lasting love, it is the attitudes toward time implied in such words such as constancy and fidelity that recur."

-Michael Ignatieff

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