suspend

Etymology

From Old French sospendre, from Latin suspendere.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /səˈspɛnd/
• Rhymes: -ɛnd

Verb

suspend (third-person singular simple present suspends, present participle suspending, simple past and past participle suspended)

1. To halt something temporarily.

   The meeting was suspended for lunch.

   • Shakespeare

     Suspend your indignation against my brother.

   • Denham

     The guard nor fights nor flies; their fate so near / At once suspends their courage and their fear.

2. To hold in an undetermined or undecided state.

   to suspend one's judgement or one's disbelief

   (Can we find and add a quotation of John Locke to this entry?)

3. To discontinue or interrupt a function, task, position, or event.

   to suspend a thread of execution in a computer program

4. To hang freely; underhang.

   to suspend a ball by a thread

5. To bring a solid substance, usually in powder form, into suspension in a liquid.
6. (obsolete) To make to depend.
   • Tillotson

     God hath suspended the promise of eternal life on the condition of obedience and holiness of life.

7. To debar, or cause to withdraw temporarily, from any privilege, from the execution of an office, from the enjoyment of income, etc.

   to suspend a student from college; to suspend a member of a club

   • Bishop Sanderson

     Good men should not be suspended from the exercise of their ministry and deprived of their livelihood for ceremonies which are on all hands acknowledged indifferent.

8. (chemistry) To support in a liquid, as an insoluble powder, by stirring, to facilitate chemical action.
9. (travel, aviation) To remove the value of an unused coupon from an air ticket, typically so as to allow continuation of the next sectors' travel.

See also

suspension, suspenders

Anagrams

• send-ups, sends up, sendups, upsends

Verb

suspend

1. third-person singular present indicative of suspendre