suspend Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb hang freely
    • The secret police suspended their victims from the ceiling and beat them
  2. verb cause to be held in suspension in a fluid
    • suspend the particles
  3. verb bar temporarily; from school, office, etc.
    debar.
  4. verb stop a process or a habit by imposing a freeze on it
    freeze.
    • Suspend the aid to the war-torn country
  5. verb make inoperative or stop
    set aside.
    • suspend payments on the loan
  6. verb render temporarily ineffective
    • the prison sentence was suspended

WordNet

Sus*pend" transitive verb
Etymology
F. suspendre, or OF. souspendre (where the prefix is L. subtus below, from sub under), L. suspendere, suspensum; pref. sus- (see Sub-) + pendere to hang. See Pedant, and cf. Suspense, n.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Suspended; present participle & verbal noun Suspending
Definitions
  1. To attach to something above; to hang; as, to suspend a ball by a thread; to suspend a needle by a loadstone.
  2. To make to depend; as, God hath suspended the promise of eternal life on the condition of obedience and holiness of life. Archaic Tillotson.
  3. To cause to cease for a time; to hinder from proceeding; to interrupt; to delay; to stay.
    Suspend your indignation against my brother. Shak.
    The guard nor fights nor fies; their fate so near At once suspends their courage and their fear. Denham.
  4. To hold in an undetermined or undecided state; as, to suspend one's judgment or opinion. Locke.
  5. To debar, or cause to withdraw temporarily, from any privilege, from the execution of an office, from the enjoyment of income, etc.; as, to suspend a student from college; to suspend a member of a club.
    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. Bp. Sanderson.
  6. To cause to cease for a time from operation or effect; as, to suspend the habeas corpus act; to suspend the rules of a legislative body.
  7. (Chem.) To support in a liquid, as an insoluble powder, by stirring, to facilitate chemical action. Syn. -- To hang; interrupt; delay; intermit; stay; hinder; debar.
Sus*pend" intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To cease from operation or activity; esp., to stop payment, or be unable to meet obligations or engagements (said of a commercial firm or a bank).

Webster 1913