Meanings of lapse back in English

Why didn't things simply lapse back to the way they'd always been?

Mr. Walker closed his eyes and seemed to lapse back into unconsciousness.

If she didn't respond, the girl might lapse back into silence.

I could lapse back into that 'fifties cuisine without blinking.

Instead of jumping long distance ahead, an individual may lapse back towards the primitive.

But he tends to lapse back into the abstraction, and his final account is perplexed and obscure.

He struggled with Egyptian, trying hard not to lapse back into Greek, and the priest seemed flattered.

The Maer nodded graciously, then closed his eyes and seemed to lapse back into his tranquil, sunlit nap.

Hector the Barber did not go out on the porch, but he did lapse back into his accustomed silence.

Only when their intricate business was over and the last Long Journey said did they lapse back into something like normality.

Her heart rose from its late sadness like a released spring; her senses revelled in the sudden lapse back to nature unadorned.

We both took another drag on our cigarettes and I prepared to lapse back into silence, but after exhaling, he spoke again.

One of the country's top retailers believes the economy could lapse back into recession - as tax revenue from the business sector slumps.

But this salvation would have been impossible if the Logos himself had been a frail creature, who could himself lapse back into nothingness.

Amid fears a weak Iraqi government could not preclude a lapse back into dictatorship, Biden said he expected they would form a strong one.

A failure would be equally frustrating and would likely see us lapse back into the existing trading range awaiting a stronger catalyst, he said.