suspend
/səs'pend/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
- Verb:
- To temporarily stop or delay something: To cause something to cease for a period of time, often with the intention of resuming it later.
- To hang something from a point above: To attach something so that it is supported from above and its lower part is free.
- To bar someone temporarily from a position or privilege: To prevent someone from performing their duties, attending a school, etc., for a fixed period.
Usage and Examples
- To temporarily stop or delay:
- The company decided to suspend operations at the factory for maintenance.
- The judge chose to suspend the sentence for two years.
- To hang something:
- They suspended a beautiful chandelier from the center of the ceiling.
- The bridge is suspended by massive steel cables.
- To bar someone temporarily:
- The student was suspended from school for three days due to misconduct.
- The player was suspended from the team for violating the rules.
Advanced Usage
- "Suspend disbelief": To willingly accept something as true or real for the sake of enjoyment, especially in fiction.
- A good movie makes you suspend disbelief and get lost in the story.
- "Suspended in time": Seeming to be unchanged or unaffected by the passage of time.
- The ancient village felt suspended in time.
- "Suspended animation": A state in which vital functions are slowed down or halted, often in science fiction or theoretical biology.
- The astronaut was placed in suspended animation for the long journey.
Variants and Related Words
- Suspension (n): The act of suspending or the state of being suspended.
- The suspension of the service caused inconvenience.
- The car has an excellent suspension system.
- Suspended (adj): In a hanging position or temporarily stopped.
- We ate at a table with a suspended glass top.
- This is a suspended license.
- Suspender (n): An elastic strap worn over the shoulders to hold up trousers.
Synonyms
- Halt: To bring or come to an abrupt stop.
- Postpone: To cause or arrange for something to take place at a time later than first scheduled.
- Dangle: To hang or swing loosely.
- Debar: To exclude or prohibit someone officially from doing something.
Related Phrasal Verbs
(Note: "Suspend" is not commonly used with particles to form phrasal verbs. Its meanings are typically expressed directly.)
Related Idioms
- "Hang in the balance": To be in an uncertain or undecided state. (Conceptually related to being suspended or pending.)
- The future of the project hangs in the balance.
Verb
- render temporarily ineffective
- the prison sentence was suspended
- make inoperative or stop
- suspend payments on the loan
- stop a process or a habit by imposing a freeze on it
- Suspend the aid to the war-torn country
- bar temporarily; from school, office, etc.
- cause to be held in suspension in a fluid
- suspend the particles
- hang freely
- The secret police suspended their victims from the ceiling and beat them