Emily Dickinson Lexicon
Definition for SUS-PEN'SION
SUS-PEN'SION, n. [Fr. from L. suspensio. See Suspend.]
- The act of hanging up, or of causing to hang by being attached to something above.
- 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.
- The act of delaying; delay; as, the suspension of a criminal's execution; called a respit or reprieve.
- 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.
- Temporary cessation; interruption; intermission; as, the suspension of labor or of study; the suspension or pain.
- 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.
- Prevention or interruption of operation; as, the suspension of the habeas corpus act.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Return to page 342 of the letter “S”.