RELAPSE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Relapse

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/rilˈæps/ Listen

noun

Relapse n.

1.

A sliding or falling back, especially into a former bad state, either of body or morals; backsliding; the state of having fallen back. "Alas! from what high hope to what relapse Unlooked for are we fallen!"

2.

One who has relapsed, or fallen back, into error; a backslider; specifically, one who, after recanting error, returns to it again. (Obs.)

verb

Relapse v. i. (past & past part. relapsed; pres. part. relapsing)

1.

To slip or slide back, in a literal sense; to turn back. (Obs.)

2.

To slide or turn back into a former state or practice; to fall back from some condition attained; generally in a bad sense, as from a state of convalescence or amended condition; as, to relapse into a stupor, into vice, or into barbarism; sometimes in a good sense; as, to relapse into slumber after being disturbed. "That task performed, (preachers) relapse into themselves."

3.

(Theol.) To fall from Christian faith into paganism, heresy, or unbelief; to backslide. "They enter into the justified state, and so continue all along, unless they relapse."

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Etymology of 'Relapse'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Relapse" Quotes from Famous Books

... sin hath ordinarily insnared God's people into divers other sins. 3. That it hath been punished of God with grievous judgments. And, 4. That utter destruction is to be feared, when a people, after great mercies and judgments, relapse into this sin, Ezra ix. ...

— Biographia Scoticana (Scots Worthies) • John Howie

... heart was through his hobby. Mike made a firm friend of William, the messenger, by displaying an interest and a certain knowledge of roses. At the same time the conversation had the bad effect of leading to an acute relapse in the matter of homesickness. The rose-garden at home had been one of Mike's favourite haunts on a summer afternoon. The contrast between it and the basement of the new Asiatic Bank, the atmosphere of which was far from being roselike, was too ...

— Psmith in the City • P. G. Wodehouse

... excitement, but rather because our nerves, after a period of extreme irritation, leave us a few moments respite, and it is during these moments the divine spark shines brightly. When creative genius has accomplished its task, the nerves once more relapse into their former irritability and cause us to suffer; but at the time of creation there is ...

— Study and Stimulants • A. Arthur Reade

... sighs to see what innocence he hath out-lived. The elder he grows, he is a stair lower from God; and, like his first father, much worse in his breeches.[5] He is the Christian's example, and the old man's relapse; the one imitates his pureness, and the other falls into his simplicity. Could he put off his body with his little coat, he had got eternity without a burden, and exchanged but one ...

— Character Writings of the 17th Century • Various

... out of you—not a single word. Just state your bill and relapse into impenetrable silence for ever and ever on these premises. Nine hundred, dollars? Is that all? This check for the amount will be honored at any respectable bank in America. What is that multitude of people gathered in the street ...

— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

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