Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SUS-PEN'SION, n. [Fr. from L. suspensio. See Suspend.]

1. The act of hanging up, or of causing to hang by being attached to something above.
2. The act of making to depend on any thing for existence or taking place; as, the suspension of payment on the performance of a condition.
3. The act of delaying; delay; as, the suspension of a criminal's execution; called a respit or reprieve.
4. Act of withholding or balancing the judgment; forbearance of determination; as, the suspension of opinion, of, judgment, of decision or determination. Suspension of judgment often proceeds from doubt or ignorance of facts.
5. Temporary cessation; interruption; intermission; as, the suspension of labor or of study; the suspension or pain.
6. Temporary privation of powers, authority or rights; usually intended as a censure or punishment; as, the suspension of an ecclesiastic or minister for some fault. This may be merely a suspension of his office, or it may be both of his office and his income. A military or naval officer's suspension takes place when he is arrested.
7. Prevention or interruption of operation; as, the suspension of the habeas corpus act.
8. In rhetoric, a keeping of the hearer in doubt and in attentive expectation of what is to follow, or what is to be the inference or conclusion from the arguments or observations.
9. In Scots law, a stay or postponement of execution of a sentence condemnatory, by means of letters of suspension granted on application to the lord ordinary. – Cyc.
10. In mechanics, points of suspension, in a balance, are the points in the axis or beam where the weights are applied, or from which they are suspended. – Cyc.
11. In music, every sound of a chord to a given base, which is continued to another base, is a suspension. – Cyc. Suspension of arms, in war, a short truce or cessation of operations agreed on by the commanders of the contending parties, as for burying the dead, making proposals for surrender or for peace, &c. – Cyc.