suspended

1. 1
   adjective

   Hanging from a point or support overhead.

   The chandelier remained suspended from the vaulted ceiling by a single iron chain.

   Acrobats performed high above the stage, suspended from slender steel cables.

   Similarhanging, dangling

   Note

   The physical sense, and one that engineers grade by degree. A locomotive motor can be fully suspended, carried entirely from above with flexible drive down to both bogie axles. Fully marks the whole weight as hanging rather than partly resting on something. In everyday use the construction is suspended from a chain or beam, or suspended above a stage.

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of suspend.

   Officials suspended the ferry service during the hurricane.

   The committee suspended its meeting until further notice.

   Note

   A regular -ed form, so one spelling covers both the simple past (officials suspended the service) and the participle after have or be (the service has been suspended). The participle shades easily into the adjectives. A suspended meeting has been halted for a while. Particles suspended in a liquid come from the verb's chemistry use, bringing a powder into suspension.

3. 3
   adjective

   Brought to a stop for a period of time, so that it is interrupted or put off until later.

   Once the lightning passed, the players took the field again and the suspended game picked up in the seventh inning.

   Flights out of the city remained suspended for two days after the blizzard.

   Similarpostponed, stopped, deferred

4. 4
   adjective

   Of a criminal penalty: pronounced but not enforced, provided the offender meets set conditions and commits no further offense.

   Like a yellow card that becomes a red one only on a second foul.

   The court handed down a suspended sentence on the condition that he stay out of trouble for two years.

   Her lawyer argued for a suspended sentence rather than time behind bars.

   Note

   Law borrows the everyday sense of something halted for a while: the penalty is paused, not erased. The court pronounces it in full but withholds enforcement, and if the offender breaches the stated conditions during the set period, the original penalty may be put into effect. In use it pairs with the court's verbs (a judge hands down or imposes a suspended sentence) and with the offender's (one receives or is given it).

5. 5
   adjective

   Paid for in advance by a customer and left for someone less fortunate to claim at no cost.

   Like a 'pay it forward' gift waiting at the counter for a stranger.

   A regular customer ordered two suspended coffees for whoever needed them next.

   Anyone struggling that week could ask for a suspended sandwich at the counter.

   Note

   A word that reached English through a custom: the Neapolitan caffè sospeso, a coffee bought by one patron and held by the café for someone who cannot afford it. It goes most often with coffee, and by extension with food, as in a suspended sandwich or a suspended meal. It stands before the noun. One person buys a suspended coffee, and someone else later asks for it.

6. 6
   adjective

   Of a chord: built with the third omitted and replaced by either the major second or the perfect fourth, creating a sense of unresolved tension.

   Like a held breath waiting to be let out.

   The song opens with a suspended chord that finally resolves on the chorus.

   He voiced a suspended chord, leaving the third out so the harmony felt open.

   Note

   Musicians shorten it to sus: sus2 when the third gives way to the major second, and sus4 when it gives way to the perfect fourth. Without its third the chord is neither major nor minor, which gives it its open, waiting sound. The tension conventionally resolves when the substituted tone steps to the third. On a chord chart the abbreviation follows the root, as in Dsus4.

7. 7
   adjective

   Of solid particles, dispersed throughout a fluid without dissolving or settling.

   Like dust hanging in a sunbeam, spread through the air without falling.

   Suspended sediment gave the river its cloudy brown color.

   The particles remained suspended in the solution rather than sinking to the bottom.

   Similardispersed

   Note

   Chemistry draws a careful line here. Suspended particles do not dissolve, so the mixture is heterogeneous, not a true solution. Their size and the fluid's motion keep them from settling. That is why suspended is the word for river sediment, while dissolved is the word for sugar in tea. Particles are suspended in a fluid, and the whole mixture is called a suspension.

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