Relapse

Quick meaning: Relapse is a verb meaning (intransitive) To fall back again; to slide or turn back into a former state or practice.

Meaning

(intransitive) To fall back again; to slide or turn back into a former state or practice.

More Meanings

1. (intransitive, medicine, of a disease) To recur; to worsen, be aggravated (after a period of improvement).
2. (intransitive, informal, specifically) To return to a vice, especially self-harm or alcoholism, failing to maintain abstinence.
3. To slip or slide back physically; to turn back.
4. The act or situation of relapsing.
5. (medicine) An occasion when a person becomes ill again after a period of improvement
6. (obsolete) One who has relapsed, or fallen back into error; a backslider.

Example Sentences

a drug relapse

relapsed after 5 months of being clean

to relapse into slumber after being disturbed

to relapse into a stupor, into vice, or into barbarism

Word Forms

• relapses
• relapsing
• relapsed

Synonyms for relapse

Depending on context, synonyms include regress, lapse, retrogress, reversion, recidivism, recidivate.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include recidivate, retrogress, backsliding, regress, recidivism, reversion.

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