relapse

From Latin relapsus, past participle of relabi (“to slide back, fall back”), from re- (“back”) + labi (“to slip, slide, fall”).

• IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈlæps/, /ˈɹiːˌlæps/
• Rhymes: -æps

relapse (third-person singular simple present relapses, present participle relapsing, simple past and past participle relapsed)

1. (intransitive) To fall back again; to slide or turn back into a former state or practice.
   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 5, in The Celebrity:

     Then we relapsed into a discomfited silence, and wished we were anywhere else. But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud, and with such a hearty enjoyment that instead of getting angry and more mortified we began to laugh ourselves, and instantly felt better.

   He has improved recently but keeps relapsing into states of utter confusion.

   to relapse into a stupor, into vice, or into barbarism

   to relapse into slumber after being disturbed

2. (intransitive, medicine, of a disease) To recur; to worsen, be aggravated (after a period of improvement).
3. To slip or slide back physically; to turn back.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)

• (to fall back into a former state or practice): fall off the wagon

relapse (plural relapses)

1. The act or situation of relapsing.

   a drug relapse

   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     Alas! from what high hope to what relapse / Unlooked for are we fallen!

2. (medicine) An occasion when a person becomes ill again after a period of improvement
3. (obsolete) One who has relapsed, or fallen back into error; a backslider.

• relapse in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• relapse in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• relapse at OneLook Dictionary Search

• Leapers, Perales, leapers, pleaser, presale, repeals

relāpse

1. vocative masculine singular of relāpsus