How to Use lapse into in a Sentence

lapse into

verb
  • How to be ready, in the moment, to not lapse into the dream, the spell, of the untrue or (worse) the half-true?
    — James Parker, The Atlantic, 28 Oct. 2025
  • The mayor will let the legislation lapse into law, but will not sign it.
    — Josephine Stratman, New York Daily News, 24 Apr. 2026
  • Handling such weighty concepts, a less deft hand might have lapsed into melodrama.
    — Tessa Solomon, ARTnews.com, 6 Apr. 2026
  • After the curtain went up, the evening lapsed into predictable patterns.
    — Alex Ross, New Yorker, 6 Oct. 2025
  • Oh no, now even the social media guys are lapsing into coachspeak.
    — Sean Gregory, Time, 3 Sep. 2025
  • Her potential to reimagine rap in her own image is too high to excuse these lapses into dreck.
    — Mano Sundaresan, Pitchfork, 3 Mar. 2026
  • Among themselves the islanders lapse into Creole.
    — Stanley Stewart, Condé Nast Traveler, 11 Oct. 2019
  • Too soon will arrive Lionel Messi’s turn to lapse into memory.
    — Miami Herald, 8 Apr. 2026
  • Any claim for Swift’s genius should reckon with her lapses into imprecision and pompousness.
    — Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 4 Sep. 2025
  • So far, however, the city hasn’t seen an exodus of its richest residents, and their alarm has lapsed into glum acceptance.
    — Michael Powell, The Atlantic, 1 Jan. 2026
  • Though the dialogue does sometimes lapse into obviousness, the cast reliably sells it.
    — Judy Berman, Time, 10 Dec. 2025
  • To acknowledge this isn’t to lapse into some postmodern view that the numbers are all fake anyway, and that Trump’s attacks thus don’t matter.
    — Jon Allsop, New Yorker, 8 Aug. 2025
  • Police posted a picture of a suspect who allegedly punched and kicked the victim, who suffered a seizure before lapsing into a coma.
    — Matt Moret, New York Times, 13 June 2026
  • When Tweedy’s lyrics lapse into obscurity, the healing power of group vocal harmonies is always there to carry him through.
    — Simon Vozick-Levinson, Rolling Stone, 22 Sep. 2025
  • And then—in a pivotal moment featured in all the trailers—Margaret starts her live weather report, only to lapse into an alien language on air.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, ArsTechnica, 13 June 2026
  • The horror conceit occasionally lapses into B-movie costume drama with antagonists that feel more pastiche than myth.
    — Jerry Saltz, Vulture, 23 Oct. 2025
  • All the same, his decision not to assign names to his principal characters, while initially lending the novel an air of universality, lapses into what feels like a formula for its own sake.
    — Dan Sheehan, Literary Hub, 22 Jan. 2026
  • Although many stretches of Route 66 have lapsed into decay, the breathtaking views of the Pacific Ocean are a reminder of the pursuits made possible by the road over the last century.
    — Susan Montoya Bryan, Los Angeles Times, 8 Apr. 2026
  • There were also quirks unique to AI—such as getting derailed by ASCII art or lapsing into philosophical rambling during long tasks.
    — Sharon Goldman, Fortune, 12 Aug. 2025
  • Some scenes are recounted in the third person by an omniscient narrator who frequently lapses into free indirect discourse; others record the stories that Pancho Villa tells around a campfire.
    — Literary Hub, 14 May 2026
  • This visibility transforms personal lapses into organizational crises.
    — Julian Hayes Ii, Forbes.com, 8 Sep. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'lapse into.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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