Relapse
Verb
Third-person singular simple present: she/he relapses
Indicative past, past participle: relapsed
present participle: relapsing
Etymology: from Latin relapses, preterit participle of verb relabi (= to slip back, to relapse). Relabi is analyzable in re- (prefix) + labi (= to fall, slip).
Intransitively
1. (The subject being an animated being) to resume something disapprovable; this is, to lapse again into something censurable after having discontinued it for a time.
It may be approximately translated by reincidir, in Spanish; recidivare, in Italian; récidiver, in French.
***With the preposition into (or merely to) before a noun or a gerund designative of the disapprovable thing:
I ought not to doubt the steadiness of your affection, yet such is the inconsistency of real love, that it is always awake to suspicion, however unreasonable; always requiring new assurances from the object of its interest, and thus it is, that I always feel revived, as by a new conviction, when your words tell me I am dear to you; and, wanting these, I relapse into doubt, and too often into despondency.
Ann Radcliffe (The Mysteries of Udolpho)
Shoshones abandoned the tillage, and relapsed into their former apathy and indifference.
Frederick Marryat (Travels and Adventures of Monsieur Violet)
"I asked when those banana fritters are coming up," lied Ford, getting out of bed and yawning so that his swollen jaw hurt him, and relapsed into his usual taciturnity.
B. M. Bower (The Uphill Climb)
Prisoners who refused to abjure their errors, who persisted in heresy, or relapsed into it after abjuration, were sentenced to be burnt at the stake,—a dreadful punishment, on the wickedness of which the world has long been happily agreed.
James Anthony Froude (History of England… )
My hope is that when he’s back she won’t relapse into being so submissive to him.
Reba D (Facing forward)
[…] perhaps she had just got tired of believing what she believed and relapsed into believing what other people believed.
Julian Barnes (Staring at the sun)
Mary awakened her again and again, but each time, after saying "All right, dearie," she relapsed to a slumber which was more torpor than sleep.
James Stephens (Mary, Mary)
Geography continually relapsed to the errors of antiquity, and needed, as Cassini loudly complained, a total reform.
Dionysius Lardner (The history of maritime and inland discovery)
Mrs. Hanbury was gratified, even delighted, when she heard of his arrival; but when she also heard the purport of his visit, her features relapsed to the sad and cold expression they had for some months borne.
Castle M…: or, a tale of old Ireland
You have relapsed to your usual extravagance.
Elizabeth Rowe (The works of Elizabeth Rowe)
2. Extensively: to change unexpectedly or suddenly from a state into another, or from an action into another, as if by fall; to resume anything, though it be not disapprovable.
Well, if there was a trogon in Arizona this early in the season, that ought to be the place to find it. Meanwhile, using my own copy of Sibley, I happily relapsed into being an accidental birder.
Mary Jo Churchwell (Arizona)
Water, once produced, will not of itself relapse into a state of hydrogen and oxygen; such a change requires some agent having the power of decomposing the compound.
John Stuart Mill (A System of Logic)
[…] the honest gentleman relapses into the study of his paper.
William Makepeace Thackeray (The newcomes)
They relapsed into silence and Robert began to look at the light that shone from the bedroom of M. de Chatillard, the only light in the house now visible.
Joseph A. Altsheler (The Sun Of Quebec)
[…] the Vampire became silent, and Vikram relapsed into a walk which allowed the tale to be resumed.
Richard F. Burton (Vikram and the Vampire)
George Brand was not in the least interested as to the speculations of those who remained about the responsibilities of the passage. He drew his chair toward the fire, and relapsed into his reading.
William Black (Sunrise)
Much to our disappointment, our guests remained silent and showed no disposition to talk, except to answer civil questions which Flood asked regarding the trail crossing on the Missouri, and what that river was like in the vicinity of old Fort Benton. When the questions had been answered, they again relapsed into silence.
Andy Adams (The Log of a Cowboy)
[…] the busy dame relapsed to her stocking darning and her calculations on the products of her dairy.
The ladies’ companion
[The locksmith] all unconscious of its near vicinity, still jogged on, half sleeping and half waking, when a loud cry at no great distance ahead, roused him with a start.
For a moment or two he looked about him like a man who had been transported to some strange country in his sleep, but soon recognising familiar objects, rubbed his eyes lazily and might have relapsed again, but that the cry was repeated—not once or twice or thrice, but many times, and each time, if possible, with increased vehemence.
Charles Dickens (Barnaby Rudge)
***Specially, to change unexpectedly from an idiom that was being used into another:
"He! Quoi?" cried he, relapsing into French. "Qu'est-ce que vous me chantez la?
Robert Louis Stevenson and Lloyd Osbourne (The Wrecker)
[…] they relapsed into their native tongue, and she listened no longer; but, at all events, she had learned that they were going away to the North.
William Black (Macleod of Dare)
"Ah, Leo mio, che sarei felice d'essere in campagna!"
It was a kind of sigh; perhaps that was the reason she had inadvertently relapsed into her own tongue. And as they went down the stairs, and he opened the door for her, the few words he addressed to her were also in Italian.
William Black (Prince Fortunatus)
3. (The subject being an animated being) to become again ill with a disease from which the relapser had convalesced; this is, to sicken newly after convalescence.
My wounded father, after his recovery, relapsed, and when I had waited in the most comfortless situation for six weeks, my friend wrote me word that the journey was yet deferred for some time longer.
Fanny Burney (Evelina)
Mr Willet stared after them, listened, looked down upon himself to make quite sure that he was still unbound, and, without any manifestation of impatience, disappointment, or surprise, gently relapsed into the condition from which he had so imperfectly recovered.
Charles Dickens (Barnaby Rudge)
In an instant afterward he felt himself going rapidly upward, when, his head striking violently against a hard substance, he again relapsed into insensibility.
Edgar Allan Poe (The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym)
She revived, but on observing the marquis, screamed and relapsed.
A Sicilian Romance, by Ann Radcliffe
[…] for a brief period, I once more relapsed into insensibility. Upon recovering, I at once started to my feet, trembling convulsively in every fibre.
Edgar Allan Poe
4. (Of stock and other commercial subjects) to lose again value.
[…] prices will relapse to what they were at first, and there will be nothing changed, except that a paper currency has been substituted for half of the metallic currency which existed before.
John Stuart Mill (Principles of Political Economy)
Other English vocables derived from, or compounded with one of the radicals of Latin labi: collapsable, collapsible, collapse (noun), collapsed, collapsibility, collapsible, collapsing, labile, lability, labilize, labilizing, labilization, labilizer, lapsable, lapsible, lapse (noun, verb), lapsed, lapser, preterlabent, preterlapsed, elapse, elapsing, elapsed, illapse (noun, verb), illapsing, illapsable, prolapse, relapse (noun, verb), relapsed, relapser, relapsing
