The word "elapse" is correct and usable in written English.
When used as a verb, it means to pass or move by gradually; to pass away slowly or go by. Example sentence: The days elapsed quickly, and soon I was starting my new job.
Fourteen years elapse before it is revealed that Babette is a cordon bleu cook – a fact that leads to her cooking the sisters and their guests a sumptuous once-in-a-lifetime meal, a cathartic event for her, her employers and the community, leaving the diners questioning their lifelong denial of mortal pleasures.
In the more than two hours that were allowed to elapse before he resumed his killing spree, Cho took the time to post a macabre video manifesto to the NBC network in New York.
Many years could elapse before an Arab system of democratic government emerges, if indeed it does.
A "code of law practice" has been enacted, along with a "law on criminal procedures" which is supposed to limit to six months the period of detention that can elapse before a trial must be held; all defendants should, in theory, have access to legal assistance.
And its scope is limited in time as well: the limits it imposes on emissions elapse at the end of 2012, unless new limits for a second "commitment period" are agreed before that.For richer, for poorerJapan was unhappy with Kyoto well before Copenhagen.
Usually at least four months elapse after it issues a deportation notice before it takes any further action, but this period often stretches to years, according to lawyers.
That means that some time should elapse before any vote is held in Aceh, so that Indonesia's new government can show itself to be more benign than its brutal predecessor.In this section The world's view of multinationals Last bust-up in Yugoslavia?
The previous, cosy assumption of defence experts that some time must elapse between testing and deployment no longer holds good.
But another couple of hours may elapse before the first concrete results from marginal constituencies are declared.
Unfortunately, 8 to 10 months may elapse before the first symptoms of hoarseness appear and a diagnosis is made.
Half-life is defined as the time period that must elapse in order to halve the initial number of radioactive atoms.
