səˈspend verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
Etymology: Middle English suspenden, from Old French suspendre to hang up, interrupt, from Latin suspendere, from sus- (variant of sub- up) + pendere to cause to hang, weigh — more at sub- , pendant
transitive verb
1. : to debar or cause to withdraw temporarily from any privilege, office, or function : subject to suspension
suspend a student from school for disciplinary reasons
suspend a member of a club
was suspended from the army for a year — H.E.Scudder
condemned him and suspended him from the ministry — A.C.McGiffert
2.
a. : to cause (as an action, process, practice, use) to cease for a time : stop temporarily
suspend publication of a magazine
suspend bus service
sometimes : to stop permanently : discontinue
b. : stay
suspend a hearing
c. : to set aside or make temporarily inoperative
ready and able to suspend their personal values for the sake of magically collective ones — E.H.Erikson
credit controls were relaxed and suspended — C.L.James
not a detached period in which the moral standards he adheres to at home can be temporarily suspended — Scott Hershey & Harry Tennant
article 140 provided that the constitutional court might suspend laws which violated the constitution — C.J.Friedrich
the general suspended constitutional guarantees for forty-five days — Current Biography
d. : to cause to be intermitted or interrupted (as in motion or execution)
they suspended their oars to listen
3. : to defer till later : postpone ; usually : to withhold for a time on specified conditions
suspend sentence on a convicted man
4. : to hold in an undetermined or undecided state awaiting fuller information
suspend judgment until further knowledge is attainable — M.R.Cohen
you suspend both belief and disbelief — T.S.Eliot
expression was suspended as she sought his mood, to know what to conform to — Louis Auchincloss
5.
a. : hang
suspending his linen to dry on the frame of the wagon — Van Wyck Brooks
the garment of primitive man was usually a simple robe that covered the body and was suspended from the shoulders — Morris Fishbein
suspended from his neck with a medallion — R.H.Brown
the exterior walls instead of supporting the roof, are suspended from it — American Fabrics
especially : to hang so as to be free on all sides except at the point of support : cause to depend
suspend a ball by a thread
suspend a chandelier from a ceiling
b. : to cause to be upheld or to be kept from falling or sinking by some invisible support (as buoyancy)
dust suspended in the air
particles suspended in water
c. : to support (the upper part of a vehicle) on the wheels or axles by springs or other devices
6. : to hold riveted in attention : keep fixed or lost (as in wonder or contemplation)
man … is forever suspended in a floating world of action and contemplation — Richard Eberhart
7. : to keep waiting in suspense or indecision
8. : to make contingent or dependent on or upon : condition
9. : to hold (a musical note or tone) over into the following chord
intransitive verb
1. : to cease temporarily from operation or activity
the magazine suspended
the school suspended for lack of finances
2. : to stop payment or fail to meet obligations or engagements — used of a business or a bank
3. obsolete
a. : to suspend judgment
b. : to have an apprehension or a suspicion
4.
a. : hang
baleen plates suspending from the upper jaw — Alaska Sportsman
b. : to become held in suspension
fine particles that suspend readily in water
Synonyms: see defer , exclude
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- suspend payments