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1. A failure to maintain a higher state
   - backsliding, lapse, relapse, relapsing, reversion, reverting

1. Pass into a specified state or condition; sink into
   "He lapsed into nirvana";
   - sink, pass
    
2. End, at least for a long time
   "The correspondence lapsed"
    
3. Drop to a lower level, as in one's morals or standards
   "Conservatives worry about McCain's lapse on immigration";
   - backslide
    
4. Go back to bad behaviour
   - relapse, recidivate, regress, retrogress, fall back
    
5. Let slip
   "He lapsed his membership"
    
6. Become later by the passage of a given amount of time
   "three years lapsed";
   - elapse, pass, slip by, glide by, slip away, go by, slide by, go along

Type of: advance, cease, drop away, drop off, end, failure, fall away, finish, forego, forfeit, forgo, give up, go on, march on, move, move on, pass on, progress, regress, retrovert, return, revert, slip, stop, terminate, throw overboard, turn back, waive

Encyclopedia: Lapsing