Meanings
present singular third person elapses · participle present elapsing · participle past elapsed · past elapsed
- intransitiveTo pass or move by.
Several days elapsed before they met again.
3 more examples
He allowed a month to elapse before beginning the work.
The week that was yet to elapse, she spent in wandering through her uncle's favourite walks in hours of tearful vigil, beside his tomb, and in collecting together every trifle on which he had set a value.
1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “The Remembrance of the Dead”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 322Many years elapsed before the success of Kemp Town as a residential district was assured; the foundations of the estate were laid in 1823, but some houses remained untenanted until the 1850s.
1952 December, R. C. Riley, “By Rail to Kemp Town”, in Railway Magazine, page 832Synonyms: go by, go, intervene, go past, pass, pass by, roll on
Synonyms & antonyms
More synonyms by meaning
verbfor time to move forward
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*h₁éǵʰ
- Proto-Indo-European*h₁éǵʰs
- Proto-Italic*eks
- Latinex
- Latinex-
- Proto-Indo-European*(s)leh₂b-der.?
- Latinlābor
- Latinēlābor
- Latinelapsus
- Middle Frenchelapser
- Englishelapse
From Middle French elapser, from Latin elapsus.
More words from Middle French, Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Ancient Greek διαγίγνομαι
- διαγίγνομαι (diagígnomai)(of time) to pass or move by
Arabic مَرَّ
- مَرَّ (marra)(of time) to pass or move by
Bulgarian изти́чам, измина́вам
- изти́чам (iztíčam)(of time) to pass or move by
- измина́вам(of time) to pass or move by
Chinese Mandarin 過去 /过去, 過 /过
- 過去 /过去 (guòqù)(of time) to pass or move by
- 過 /过 (guò)(of time) to pass or move by
Esperanto pasi
- pasi(of time) to pass or move by
Finnish kulua, vieriä
- kulua(of time) to pass or move by
- vieriä(of time) to pass or move by
- vierähtää(of time) to pass or move by
French se passer, s'écouler
- se passer(of time) to pass or move by
- s'écouler(of time) to pass or move by
German vergehen, verrinnen
- vergehen(of time) to pass or move by
- verrinnen(of time) to pass or move by
Italian trascorrere
- trascorrere(of time) to pass or move by
Japanese 過ぎる, 経つ
- 過ぎる (sugiru)(of time) to pass or move by
- 経つ (tatsu)(of time) to pass or move by
Korean 지나가다
- 지나가다 (jinagada)(of time) to pass or move by
Polish upływać
- upływać(of time) to pass or move by
Portuguese passar, transcorrer
- passar(of time) to pass or move by
- transcorrer(of time) to pass or move by
Russian проходи́ть, пройти́
- проходи́ть (proxodítʹ)(of time) to pass or move by
- пройти́ (projtí)(of time) to pass or move by
- истека́ть (istekátʹ)(of time) to pass or move by
- исте́чь (istéčʹ)(of time) to pass or move by
- минова́ть (minovátʹ)(of time) to pass or move by
- ми́нуть (mínutʹ)(of time) to pass or move by
Spanish transcurrir, discurrir
- transcurrir(of time) to pass or move by
- discurrir(of time) to pass or move by
Swedish förgå, passera
- förgå(of time) to pass or move by
- passera(of time) to pass or move by
- förlöpa(of time) to pass or move by
Vietnamese trôi qua
- trôi qua(of time) to pass or move by
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with elapse
All rhymes →Anagrams
Cite this entry
elapse. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/elapse
“elapse.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/elapse. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “elapse,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/elapse.
Source: elapse on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.