interlapse

plural interlapses

1. obsoleteThe time between two events.

   […] after a short interlapse of time [the salts] produce Coughs, Ptisicks, and at last a Pulmonique Consumption.

   1666, Gideon Harvey, chapter 28, in Morbus Anglicus: or, The Anatomy of Consumptions, London: Nathaniel Brook, page 160

   3 more examples

   A part of the time they spent in senseless intoxication; and the lucid interlapse of sobriety was occupied only in mourning over the recollection of past importance, and trembling at the prospect of speedy annihilation.

   1819, Ezekiel Sanford, A History of the United States before the Revolution, section III, Philadelphia: Anthony Finley, page cxc

   It is the interlapse between the correct aim and the touch of the trigger, or impulse of the shot, which is the secret of many a miss at a rapidly flying object.

   1860, “Marksman” (pseudonym), “Finishing Lessons”, in The Dead Shot or Sportsman’s Complete Guide, London: Longman, Green, Longman, and Roberts, page 68

   These from early boyhood had been trained to the sea, and knew no other home than was to be had upon her heaving breast, except indeed, by the brief glimpses which the interlapses conjoined to it afforded, embracing a fortnight or so on land, after having been paid off, and before getting shipped again.

   1878, Joseph P. Faulkner, chapter 7, in Eighteen Months on a Greenland Whaler, New York: for the author, page 188

   Synonyms: gap, interval, between-time, gap, interim, lapse, meantime, meanwhile

2. obsoleterareThe distance between two things.

   There is an exquisite continuous gradation and interlapse of hue between the silver-grays, the reddish-browns, and the dull yellows of the honeysuckles, the ruddy apple, the auburn tresses of Venus, her lips and eyes, the red and pink roses, the yellow butterflies, and the dark-green background.

   1882, William Sharp, chapter 3, in Dante Gabriel Rossetti: A Record and a Study, London: Macmillan, page 207

   Synonyms: gap, separation, break, gap, interspace, interstice, interstitium, opening

present singular third person interlapses · participle present interlapsing · participle past interlapsed · past interlapsed

1. obsoleteTo elapse (between two events).

   Many a week would frequent interlapse Ere yet a letter came—

   1858, George M. Ryder, “Gillian”, in Gillian; and Other Poems, Philadelphia: Charles Desilver, page 37

   3 more examples

   the space of time that interlapsed betwixt the overthrow of Hamilton, and our solemne denouncing against them for that hostilitie

   1651, Henry Parker, “Of the Scoch Warre”, in Scotlands Holy War, London, p

   1821, The Debates and Proceedings in the Congress of the United States, Sixteenth Congress—Second Session, Washington: Gales and Seaton, 1855, “South American States,” p. 1050, But the time which has interlapsed since the adoption of the resolution has given us indubitable evidence of the course of policy which the President is resolved to pursue.

   1916, Illinois Public Utilities Commission, Public Utilities Report, in Public Utilities Reports Annotated, Rochester, NY: The Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Company, p. 310, We must at every step of the way outline to ourselves the necessary lengths of interlapsing time to do all these things, as well as the amount of labor to design, contract for, and actually build each structure.

   Synonyms: intervene

2. obsoleterareTo be situated between.

   1895, William Sharp (as Fiona Macleod), The Mountain Lovers, London: John Lane, Chapter 1, p. 13, But when the pool, save for the margins, was all one wave of interlapsing gold and silver, the shadow-shape at last raised a shaggy peaked head.