elapse

1 of 2

verb

elapsed; elapsing

intransitive verb

: pass, go by
four years elapsed before he returned

elapse

2 of 2

noun

: passage
returned after an elapse of 15 years

Examples of elapse in a Sentence

Verb in those coin-operated binoculars at scenic areas your viewing time seems to elapse almost before it has begun
Recent Examples on the Web
Verb
According to Keith Dunn who attends the race and provides updates on X – formerly known as Twitter – Paris finished the grueling course with a time of 59 hours, 58 minutes and 21 seconds; just 99 seconds before the 60-hour time limit elapsed. Ben Morse, CNN, 23 Mar. 2024 While the update was originally only supposed to take six hours, 25 hours elapsed before the game was fully operational again, meaning most users were unable to play the new season until the following day. Katie Wiseman, The Indianapolis Star, 11 Mar. 2024 If a camping party is required to leave a campground upon reaching the 15-night limit, the party is not eligible to return until five nights have elapsed. Detroit Free Press, 12 Mar. 2024 Those headlights were set to high beam out of the gates Friday, as the Wolves scored the first 11 points and led by 22 before even eight minutes had elapsed. Jace Frederick, Twin Cities, 13 Jan. 2024 Roughly two minutes elapsed between when the ship's pilot notified state authorities of an issue on board and when the bridge collapsed, Baltimore County Executive John Olszewski said. Rohan Mattu, CBS News, 27 Mar. 2024 Accounting for these interactions proved so complicated that nearly 50 years would elapse between Anderson’s 1958 paper and the first serious attempts to understand localization in many-particle systems, which physicists call many-body localization. Charlie Wood, Quanta Magazine, 26 Feb. 2024 By this time, about twenty-five minutes had elapsed. Charles Bethea, The New Yorker, 7 Mar. 2024 In the race, Alonso was given a five-second penalty for lining up outside his grid box at the start of the event and then was assessed a further 10-second penalty for not serving the first correctly due to a mechanic’s jack touching the car before the five seconds had elapsed. Matias Grez, CNN, 7 Mar. 2024
Noun
As time has passed, however, the governor has questioned the death penalty's value because of the long delays that elapse between crime and punishment. Julie Carr Smyth, The Enquirer, 30 Jan. 2024 More than 25 seconds elapse between the final Palestinian rocket and the hospital explosion. Christoph Koettl, New York Times, 22 Oct. 2023 Approximately five seconds elapse between the time that the officer gets out of his patrol car, runs over to the driver’s side of Irizarry’s vehicle, and fires his gun what appears to be six times with at least one shot striking Irizarry’s front windshield. Danny Freeman, CNN, 8 Sep. 2023 The 17 hours that elapse between check-in and check-out will be spent doing any number of activities laid out in the listing. Charlie Hobbs, Condé Nast Traveler, 3 Aug. 2023 From the moment the algorithms set to work detecting their targets until these targets are prosecuted — a term of art in the field — no more than two or three minutes elapse. Bruno Maçães, Time, 10 July 2023 But several minutes elapse before officers attempt to deliver oxygen or CPR. Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times, 29 Mar. 2023 The day marks the elapse of a 30-day grace period since the country was due to pay the equivalent of $100 million in dollars and euros to bondholders. Caitlin Ostroff, WSJ, 26 June 2022

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'elapse.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Verb

Latin elapsus, past participle of elabi, from e- + labi to slip — more at sleep

First Known Use

Verb

1644, in the meaning defined above

Noun

circa 1677, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of elapse was in 1644

Dictionary Entries Near elapse

Cite this Entry

“Elapse.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/elapse. Accessed 25 Apr. 2024.

Kids Definition

elapse

verb
i-ˈlaps
elapsed; elapsing
: to slip or glide away : pass
weeks elapsed before I found time to write

More from Merriam-Webster on elapse

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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