2. To slide or turn back into a former state or practice; to
fall back from some condition attained; -- generally in a
bad sense, as from a state of convalescence or amended
condition; as, to relapse into a stupor, into vice, or
into barbarism; -- sometimes in a good sense; as, to
relapse into slumber after being disturbed.
That task performed, [preachers] relapse into
themselves. --Cowper.
3. (Theol.) To fall from Christian faith into paganism,
heresy, or unbelief; to backslide.
They enter into the justified state, and so continue
all along, unless they relapse. --Waterland.
{Relapsing fever} (Med.), an acute, epidemic, contagious
fever, which prevails also endemically in Ireland, Russia,
and some other regions. It is marked by one or two
remissions of the fever, by articular and muscular pains,
and by the presence, during the paroxism of spiral
bacterium ({Spiroch[ae]te}) in the blood. It is not
usually fatal. Called also {famine fever}, and {recurring
fever}.