lapse 
2. A gradual fall or descent; passage down- 
ward, physical or moral; a passing from a 
higher to a lower place, state, or condition: as, 
a lapse from integrity; a lapse into sin. 
Since thy original lapse, true liberty 
Is lost. Milton, 1'. L., xii. 83. 
The lapse to indolence is soft and imperceptible, but the 
return to diligence is difficult. Johnson, Rambler. 
With soft and silent lapse came down 
The glory that the wood receives, 
At sunset, in its golden leaves. 
Longfellow, Burial of the Minnisink. 
3. A failure or miscarriage through some fault, 
slip, or negligence; hence, a slip or fault in 
general ; a mistake from carelessness or inat- 
tention : as, a lapse of justice ; a lapse of title to 
an estate ; a lapse of the tongue or of grammar. 
His [Adrian's] whole time was a very restoration of all 
the lapses and decays of former times. 
Bacon, Advancement of Learning, L 78. 
Let us stand never so much upon pur guard, there will 
be lapses, there will be inadvertencies, there will be sur- 
prises. Bp. Atterbury, Sermons, II. iv. 
4. In Eng. eccles. law, the failure or omission 
of a patron to present a clerk to a benefice 
within the time allowed him, six months from 
avoidance, in which event the benefice is said 
to be lapsed or in lapse, and the right of pres- 
entation passes to the bishop. 
The canon was made for presentation within six months, 
and title of lapse given to the bishop. 
Selden, Illustrations of Drayton's Polyolbion, viii. 
lapse (laps), v. ; pret. and pp. lapsed, ppr. laps- 
ing. [< L. lapsare, fall, slip, stumble, freq. of 
labi, pp. lapsus, fall, slip : see lapse, n. Cf. col- 
lapse, elapse, illapse, relapse.'] I. intrans. 1. To 
fall; slip; slide; glide; sink; pass slowly, silent- 
ly, or by degrees. 
This disposition to shorten our words by retrenching 
the vowels is nothing else but a tendency to lapse into the 
barbarity of those northern nations from which we de- 
scended. Swijt, To the Lord Treasurer. 
2. To slip in conduct ; fail in duty ; deviate 
from rectitude ; commit a fault; slip or fall into 
error or sin. 
To lapse in fulness 
Is sorer than to lie for need. 
Shak., Cymbeline, ill. 6. 12. 
3. To fall or pass from one proprietor to an- 
other, by the omission, negligence, or failure of 
some one, as a patron, a legatee, etc. 
If the archbishop shall not fill it up within six months 
ensuing, it lapses to the king. Ayliffe, Parergon. 
4. To pass or fall away; fail; specifically, in 
law, to become ineffectual or void: as, the ben- 
efice lapsed; the legacy lapsed. 
Until in time his history shall lapse and be forgotten. 
R. D. Blackmore, Lorna Doone, p. 277. 
The lapsed, in early church hist., those who, having pro- 
fessed Christianity, denied the faith in time of persecution 
or fell into some other kind of sin, such as offering sacrifice 
or incense to idols, etc. On profession of contrition they 
were allowed to hope for restoration to the church, but, 
before being again admitted to communion, had to pass a 
long probation, and submit to special penances, some- 
times lasting till the approach of death. 
II. trans. To cause or suffer to slide; suffer 
to fail or become void or ineffectual; let slip. 
[Rare.] 
He counts the living his to dispose, not to make profit 
of. He fears more to lapse his conscience than his living. 
Fuller. 
lap-shaver (lap'sha^ver), n. A machine for 
reducing leather-hides to a uniform thickness 
by shaving away inequalities by means of a 
set knife. The name comes from the old prac- 
tice of shaving hides by hand while held on a 
board in the lap. E. H. Knight. 
lap-sided (lap'si'ded), a. Same as lop-sided. 
lap-stone (lap'ston), n. A stone held in the lap 
on which shoemakers hammer leather to make 
it more solid. 
lapstreak (lap'strek), a. and n. I. a. Built 
with each streak or course of planking over- 
lapping the one below it like clapboards on a 
house ; clincher-built : applied to boats. 
II. n. A boat built in this way. Lapstreaks 
are not so strong as smooth-seamed boats, and 
are much more easily strained. 
This boat . . . was a lapstreak, some thirty-seven feet 
long. The Boston Globe, Nov. 7, 1886. 
lapstreaked (lap'strekt), a. Same as lapstreak. 
lapstreaker (lap'stre-ker), n. A fisherman who 
uses a lapstreak boat. [New England.] 
lapsus (lap'sus), .; pi. lapsus. [L., a fall, 
slip: see lapse, n.~\ A fall or slide; a slip: only 
as a Latin word Lapsus calami, a slip of the pen ; 
a mistake in writing. Lapsus linguae, a slip of the 
tongue; a mistake of a word in utterance. Lapsus me- 
morise, a slip of the memory. 
3354 
lap-table (lap'ta'bl), n. Same as lap-board. 
lap-tea (lap'te), . A tea at which refresh- 
ments are served to the guests in their laps, 
instead of at table. Lowell, Biglow Papers, 
Int. [Local, U. S.] 
Laputan (la-pu'tan), a. and n. [< Laputa (see 
def.) + -an.] I. a. Pertaining to Laputa, an 
imaginary flying island described in Swift's 
"Gulliver's Travels," whose inhabitants were 
engaged in all sorts of ridiculous projects; 
hence, chimerical ; absurd; ridiculous; impos- 
sible. 
After all, Swift's idea of extracting sunbeams oat of cu- 
cumbers, which he attributes to his Lapiiian philosophers, 
may not be so very absurd. 
Sir J. Berschel, Pop. Lects., p. 62. 
II. n. An inhabitant of Laputa; a visionary. 
lap-weld (lap'weld), n. A welding or weld 
made by lapping one piece of metal over an- 
other before hammering: distinguished from 
butt-weld. 
lapweld (lap'weld), v. t. To weld together by 
the lapping of one edge over the other. 
lapwing (lap'wing), n. [Early mod. E. lappe- 
wing, < ME. lapwing, a corrupt form, simulating 
wing ("because he laps or claps the wings so 
often" Minsheu), of lapwink, lapwynke, lappe- 
winke, laptcynche, prop, "lepewinke, leepwynke, 
< AS. Meapewince, a lapwing, < hledpan, leap, 
run, -f- *wince, < *wincan, move aside, turn : see 
wink, wince. The name appar. refers to the 
bird's irregular, twitching mode of flight.] A 
plover-like bird with four toes, a crest, and lus- 
trous plumage, belonging to the genus Vanellus 
and family Charadriidte. The best-known lapwing 
Is V. cristatus, a common European bird, also called pe- 
Lapwing ( Vancllus cristatus). 
urit, from its cry. The adult male has the upper parts iri- 
descent with green, violet, and purplish tints, the under 
parts white, a large area on the breast and the top of the 
head and the long crest black, the tail-coverts chestnut 
or orange-brown, the tail black and white, the bill black, 
and the feet red. It is about as large as a pigeon. The 
eggs are esteemed a great luxury, and many are annually 
sent to the London markets from the marshy districts of 
England, under the name of plovers' eggs. There are other 
species. Also called flopiriwj. 
For anone after he was chaunged, 
And from his owne kinde strannged, 
A lapwynke made he was. 
Gower, Conf. Amant., v. 
Wherein you resemble the lapwing, who crieth most 
where her nest is not. Lyly, Alexander and Campaspe, ii. 2. 
lapwinkt, An obsolete form of lapwing. 
lapwork (lap'werk), n. In metal-working, work 
in which parts are fastened together by being 
lapped one over the other and then riveted, 
lapwelded, or the like. 
laquayt, laqueyt, n. Obsolete forms of lackey. 
Minsheu, 1617. 
laquear (lak'we-ar), . [L., also laqueare, a 
paneled ceiling; cf. lacunar, of same sense: see 
lacunar.~] A ceiling which consists of sunk or 
hollowed compartments having bands or spaces 
between. See lacunar^. 
Lar 1 (lar), n. ; pi. Lares (la'rez), or, as English, 
Lars (larz). [< L. Lar, usually in pi. Lares, OL. 
Loses (Etruscan Laran, Lalan), perhaps akin to 
Skt. / las, shine.] 1. In Bom. antiq., one of 
a class of infernal deities whose cult was of 
primitive origin. They were looked upon as natural 
protectors of the state and family, and also as powerful for 
evil if not duly respected and propitiated. The public 
Lares, originally two in number, were the guardians of the 
unity of the state, and were honored with temples and an 
larcenist 
elaborate public ceremonial. After the time of Augustus, 
at least, each division of the city had also its own public 
Lares (Lares coinpitales). The private Lares differed for 
each family, and were worshiped daily in the house, be- 
ing domiciled either on the family hearth or in a special 
shrine. They received also especial recognition upon 
every occasion of festivity, public or private, and on cer- 
tain days devoted particularly to them, and claimed trib- 
ute alike from the bride upon entering the family and 
from the youth upon attaining his majority. The chief 
of the private Lares in each family, the domestic or house- 
hold Lar (Lar familiaris) in the fullest sense, was the 
spirit of the founder of the family. To the family spirits 
were often added in later times, among the household 
Lares, the shades of heroes, or other personalities who 
were looked upon with admiration or awe. In their char- 
acter as malignant divinities, the Lares were commonly 
classed under the titles of lemures or larvce. 
In consecrated earth, 
And on the holy hearth, 
The Lars and Lemures moan with midnight plaint. 
Milton, Nativity, 1. 191. 
Hence 2. One of the most cherished posses- 
sions of a family or household ; one of the house- 
hold gods. Compare Penates, in a like use. 
So shall each youth, assisted by our eyes, . . . 
Be rich in ancient brass [coins], though not in gold, 
And keep his Lares, though his house be sold. 
Pope, Dunciad, iv. 366. 
You were my wonders, you my Lars, 
In darkling days my sun and stars. 
Lowell, Oracle of the Goldfishes. 
3. [I. c.] The white-handed gibbon, Hylobates 
lar. See Hylobates. 4. pi. [NL.] A group of 
lepidopterous insects. 5. [NL.] A genus of 
gymnoblastic or tubularian hydroids, type of 
the family Hydrolaridtz. 
Lar 2 (lar), n. [< L. Lar or Lars (Lart-), < Etrus- 
can Larth, lord.] Lord: a title prefixed to 
Etruscan names, properly distinctive of the 
eldest son, and often mistaken for an integral 
part of the name. Also Lars. 
Appraised the Lycian custom, spoke of those 
That lay at wine with Lar and Lucumo. 
Tennyson, Princess, ii. 
Lars Porsena of Clusium, 
By the nine gods he swore 
That the great house of Tarquin 
Should suffer wrong no more. 
JHacaulay, Horatlus. 
Laramie group. See group*. 
lararium (la-ra'ri-um), n.; pi. lararia (-a). [L., 
< Lar, a household deity : see Lar^."\ Among 
the ancient Romans, a small shrine in private 
houses where the Lares were kept and wor- 
shiped. 
larboard (lar'bord; by sailors, lab'erd), n. and 
a. [Early mod. E. also larboard (also leereboord, 
in connection with and accommodated tosteere- 
boord, starboard); prob., with irreg. alteration 
of d to r by assimilation of the form to that of the 
associated starboard, < ME. laddebord (found 
only once), perhaps for *ladebord, lit. the 'lad- 
ing-side ' (the side on which, in the absence of 
any reason to the contrary, the cargo is received), 
< lade, a load, lit. a carrying (confused with the 
unrelated verb lade, < AS. liladan, lade), + bord, 
board, side: see lade 2 , lade 1 , load 1 , load 2 , and 
board. The AS. term was batcbord: see etym. 
of backboard. It is not clear why this term, 
which remains in other Teut. tongues, gave 
way in E. to larboard. Cf. starboard (ult. < 
AS. stedrbord, < stedr, steer, rudder, + bord, 
side). The supposition that larboard stands 
for *lower-board, i. e. left side (D. laager, lower, 
left; cf. E. obs. higher, right), is untenable; and 
the statement that larboard and starboard are 
derived, respectively, from the (supposed) It. 
terms quella borda, 'that side,' ques/a borda, 
'this side,' is gross nonsense.] I. n. Naut., 
that side of a ship which is on the left hand of 
a person facing the bow: opposed to starboard, 
the right-hand side. The term is now obsolescent, 
the word port having been officially substituted in order 
to avoid confusion, in hearing orders, with the opposite 
but like-sounding starboard. 
Thay layden in on laddeborde and the lofe Wynnes. 
Alliterative Poem (ed. MorrisX ili. 106. 
All the way vpon his leerebord was the maine ocean. 
Hakluyt's Voyages, p. & 
We have had enough of action, and of motion we, 
Eoll'd to starboard, roll'd to larboard, when the surge was 
seething free. Tennyson, Lotos-Eaters (Choric Song). 
II. a. Of or pertaining to the left-hand side 
of a ship ; port : as, the larboard quarter Lar- 
board boat, or larboard quarter-boat, the mate's boat 
of a whaler. 
larbowlines (lar'bo'lmz or -linz), n. [< lar 
(board) + bowlines.'] Naut., the men of the lar- 
board watch. See watch. 
larcener (iar'se-ner), n. [< larcen-y + -erl.] 
One who commits larceny ; a thief. 
larcenist (lar'se-nist), H. [< larcen-y + -ist.] 
Same as larcener. 
