RELAPSE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Relapse

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/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."

See images of 'Relapse'

Etymology of 'Relapse'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"Relapse" Quotes from Famous Books

... joy when he perceived symptoms of life in his friend; but the fear of relapse kept him in the greatest anxiety. They immediately sent for a surgeon, who, as soon as he arrived, searched the wound. He found it was not in the temple, but so very close to it, that the tenth part of an inch nearer would probably have made the wound dangerous ...

— The Looking-Glass for the Mind - or Intellectual Mirror • M. Berquin

... (whether it were from a life too sedentary; or from his natural constitution, in which was one circumstance very remarkable, that, from his cradle, he never had a regular pulse) a long and painful relapse into an asthma and dropsy deprived the World of this great man, on the 17th of ...

— An English Garner - Critical Essays & Literary Fragments • Edited by Professor Arber and Thomas Seccombe

... very sharp winter, threw him into a relapse of sickness, much more dangerous than the former; as it were to verify the prediction of St Jerome; for he was seized with a quartan ague, which was both malignant and obstinate; insomuch that it cast him into an extreme faintness, and made him as meagre as a skeleton. ...

— The Works of John Dryden, Volume XVI. (of 18) - The Life of St. Francis Xavier • John Dryden

... man, whom we found deranged, had been a merchant's clerk, and had gone out to Canada in the vain hope of finding employment. Disappointed in his expectations, he was returning home. At first he appeared to recover strength, but a relapse took place, and he rapidly seemed to grow weaker and weaker. I was sent to watch him. Suddenly he sat up in his berth, and ...

— Old Jack • W.H.G. Kingston

... given me poison at three different times. On her knees, she begged my forgiveness, and thanked God that my life had been spared. She was so broken down by the thought of her unnatural and wicked purpose, that I feared that she would have a relapse into sickness. She seemed so wholly contrite, that I thought she would never undertake such a terrible crime again, and I ...

— The Somnambulist and the Detective - The Murderer and the Fortune Teller • Allan Pinkerton

Copyright © 2025 Dictionary One.com