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Lapse vs Ebb - What's the difference?

lapse | ebb |

As nouns the difference between lapse and ebb

is that lapse is while ebb is the receding movement of the tide.

As a verb ebb is

to flow back or recede.

As an adjective ebb is

low, shallow.

lapse

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A temporary failure; a slip.
  • * Rogers
    • to guard against those lapses and failings to which our infirmities daily expose us
  • A decline or fall in standards.
  • * Rambler
    • The lapse to indolence is soft and imperceptible.
  • A pause in continuity.
  • An interval of time between events.
  • * I. Taylor
    • Francis Bacon was content to wait the lapse of long centuries for his expected revenue of fame.
  • A termination of a right etc, through disuse or neglect.
  • (weather) A marked decrease in air temperature with increasing altitude because the ground is warmer than the surrounding air. This condition usually occurs when skies are clear and between 1100 and 1600 hours, local time. Strong convection currents exist during lapse conditions. For chemical operations, the state is defined as unstable. This condition is normally considered the most unfavorable for the release of chemical agents. See lapse rate.
  • (legal) A common-law rule that if the person to whom property is ed were to die before the testator, then the gift would be ineffective.
  • (theology) A fall or apostasy.

    • Synonyms

    * blooper, blunder, boo-boo, defect, error, fault, faux pas, fluff, gaffe, mistake, slip, stumble, thinko

    Derived terms

    * time-lapse (common law rule) * anti-lapse

    Related terms

    * lapsarian

    Verb

    (laps)
  • To fall away gradually; to subside.
  • * Jonathan Swift
    • a tendency to lapse into the barbarity of those northern nations from whom we are descended
  • * Addison
    • Homer, in his characters of Vulcan and Thersites, has lapsed into the burlesque character.
  • To fall into error or heresy.
  • * Shakespeare
    • To lapse in fullness / Is sorer than to lie for need.
  • To slip into a bad habit that one is trying to avoid.
  • To become void.
  • To fall or pass from one proprietor to another, or from the original destination, by the omission, negligence, or failure of somebody, such as a patron or legatee.
  • * Ayliffe
    • If the archbishop shall not fill it up within six months ensuing, it lapses to the king.

    Anagrams

    * ----

    ebb

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The receding movement of the tide.
    • The boats will go out on the ebb .
  • * (rfdate) Shelley
    • Thou shoreless flood which in thy ebb and flow / Claspest the limits of morality!
  • A gradual decline.
  • * (rfdate) Roscommon
    • Thus all the treasure of our flowing years, / Our ebb of life for ever takes away.
  • A low state; a state of depression.
  • * (rfdate) Dryden
    • Painting was then at its lowest ebb .
  • * 2002 , (Joyce Carol Oates), The New Yorker , 22 & 29 April
    • A "lowest ebb'" implies something singular and finite, but for many of us, born in the Depression and raised by parents distrustful of fortune, an "' ebb " might easily have lasted for years.
  • A European bunting, .

    • Derived terms

    * ebb and flow * ebb tide

    Antonyms

    * flood * flow

    Related terms

    * tide

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • to flow back or recede
    • The tides ebbed at noon .
  • to fall away or decline
    • The dying man's strength ebbed away .
  • to fish with stakes and nets that serve to prevent the fish from getting back into the sea with the ebb
  • To cause to flow back.
    • (Ford)

    Synonyms

    ebb away, ebb down, ebb off, ebb out, reflux, wane

    Adjective

    (er)
  • low, shallow
    • The water there is otherwise very low and ebb . (Holland)
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