Lapse
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary · Walter A. Shumaker and George Foster Longsdorf; ed. James C. Cahill · 1922
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary
To glide; to pass slowly, silently, or by degrees, to slip; to deviate from the proper path.
Webster.
See "Lapsed Devise"; "Lapsed Legacy." In Ecclesiastical Law. The transfer, by forfeiture, of a right to present or collate to a vacant benefice from a person vested with such right to another, in consequence of some act of negligence by the former.
Ayliffe, Par. 331.
Upon six months' neglect of the patron, the right lapses to the bishop; upon six months' neglect of bishop, to archbishop; upon his six months' neglect, to king. The day on which the vacancy occurs is not