RELAPSING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does relapsing mean? 

• RELAPSING (noun)
  The noun RELAPSING has 1 sense:

1. a failure to maintain a higher state

  Familiarity information: RELAPSING used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RELAPSING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A failure to maintain a higher state

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

backsliding; lapse; lapsing; relapse; relapsing; reversion; reverting

Hypernyms ("relapsing" is a kind of...):

failure (an act that fails)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "relapsing"):

recidivism (habitual relapse into crime)

Derivation:

relapse (go back to bad behavior)

 Context examples 

Jane had spent an evening at Hartfield with her grandmother and aunt, and every thing was relapsing much into its usual state.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

A rare, chronic and relapsing autoimmune disorder of unknown etiology, characterized by the presence of immune thrombocytopenia and autoimmune hemolytic anemia.

(Evans Syndrome, NCI Thesaurus)

She was fast relapsing into stupor; nor did her mind again rally: at twelve o'clock that night she died.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“Try the settee,” said Holmes, relapsing into his armchair and putting his fingertips together, as was his custom when in judicial moods.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Besides which, she is so charmingly ugly, relapsing into languor.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is a clinical diagnosis characterized by an unexplained persistent or relapsing chronic fatigue that is of at least six months' duration, is not the result of ongoing exertion, is not substantially alleviated by rest, and results in substantial reduction of previous levels of occupational, educational, social, or personal activities.

(Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, NCI Thesaurus)

I answered in a faint voice, that death would have been too great a happiness; that although I could not blame the assembly’s exhortation, or the urgency of his friends; yet, in my weak and corrupt judgment, I thought it might consist with reason to have been less rigorous; that I could not swim a league, and probably the nearest land to theirs might be distant above a hundred: that many materials, necessary for making a small vessel to carry me off, were wholly wanting in this country; which, however, I would attempt, in obedience and gratitude to his honour, although I concluded the thing to be impossible, and therefore looked on myself as already devoted to destruction; that the certain prospect of an unnatural death was the least of my evils; for, supposing I should escape with life by some strange adventure, how could I think with temper of passing my days among Yahoos, and relapsing into my old corruptions, for want of examples to lead and keep me within the paths of virtue? that I knew too well upon what solid reasons all the determinations of the wise Houyhnhnms were founded, not to be shaken by arguments of mine, a miserable Yahoo; and therefore, after presenting him with my humble thanks for the offer of his servants’ assistance in making a vessel, and desiring a reasonable time for so difficult a work, I told him I would endeavour to preserve a wretched being; and if ever I returned to England, was not without hopes of being useful to my own species, by celebrating the praises of the renowned Houyhnhnms, and proposing their virtues to the imitation of mankind.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)