Definition of "relapse" []

• To fall or slide back into a former state. (verb-intransitive)
• To regress after partial recovery from illness. (verb-intransitive)
• To slip back into bad ways; backslide. (verb-intransitive)
• A falling back into a former state, especially after apparent improvement. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "There was no looking at watches, no stifled yawning, no uneasy change of position, no watching the clock; strangers visiting the chapel listened, at first, from real interest, with a feeling that by-and-by they would relapse into their usual listlessness, but before they had time to _relapse_, behold the sermon was done."
• "And that's the area that I'm working with now, with the offenders I'm in contact with, giving them a motive that will last, as to why they should to ahead and stay in what we call relapse prevention."
• "Oh, this relapse is a severe disappointment to me, and, God knows, not altogether a selfish disappointment!"