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Lapse vs Gap - What's the difference?

lapse | gap |

As nouns the difference between lapse and gap

is that lapse is a temporary failure; a slip while gap is an opening in anything made by breaking or parting.

As verbs the difference between lapse and gap

is that lapse is to fall away gradually; to subside while gap is to notch, as a sword or knife.

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

    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

    * ----

    gap

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An opening in anything made by breaking or parting.
  • An opening allowing passage or entrance.
  • An opening that implies a breach or defect.
  • A vacant space or time.
  • A hiatus.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= The machine of a new soul , passage=The yawning gap in neuroscientists’ understanding of their topic is in the intermediate scale of the brain’s anatomy. Science has a passable knowledge of how individual nerve cells, known as neurons, work. It also knows which visible lobes and ganglia of the brain do what. But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure. Yet this is the level of organisation that does the actual thinking—and is, presumably, the seat of consciousness.}}
  • A mountain or hill pass.
  • (label) A sheltered area of coast between two cliffs (mostly restricted to place names).
  • (label) The regions between the outfielders.
  • The shortfall between the amount the medical insurer will pay to the service provider and the scheduled fee for the item.
  • * 2008 , Eileen Willis, Louise Reynolds, Helen Keleher, Understanding the Australian Health Care System , page 5,
  • Under bulk billing the patient does not pay a gap , and the medical practitioner receives 85% of the scheduled fee.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=May 13, author=Andrew Benson, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= Williams's Pastor Maldonado takes landmark Spanish Grand Prix win , passage=That left Maldonado with a 6.2-second lead. Alonso closed in throughout their third stints, getting the gap down to 4.2secs before Maldonado stopped for the final time on lap 41.}}
  • * {{quote-book, year=1995, author=Robert E. Knoll, chapter=A University on the Defensive 1920-1927
  • , title= Prairie University: A History of the University of Nebraska, page=70 , passage=When Charles Bessey suddenly died in 1916 at age seventy, he left a gap that was impossible to fill; and though his protégé. R. J. Pool, was a man of intelligence and character, he did not have Bessey’s authority.}}
  • (label) (usually written as "the gap") The disparity between the indigenous and non-indigenous communities with regard to life expectancy, education, health, etc.
  • Synonyms

    * (opening made by breaking or parting) break, hole, rip, split, tear, rift, chasm, fissure * (opening allowing passage or entrance) break, clearing, hole, opening * (opening that implies a breach or defect) space * (vacant space or time) window * (hiatus) hiatus * (mountain pass) col, neck, pass * (in baseball)

    Derived terms

    * gap-toothed * gap year

    Verb

    (gapp)
  • (label) To notch, as a sword or knife.
  • (label) To make an opening in; to breach.
  • (label) To check the size of a gap.
  • Anagrams

    * * * ----