Suspense

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Suspense \Sus*pense"\, a. [F. suspens, L. suspensus, p. p. of
     suspendere. See {Suspend}.]
     1. Held or lifted up; held or prevented from proceeding.
        [Obs.]
        [1913 Webster]
  


              [The great light of day] suspense in heaven.
                                                    --Milton.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Expressing, or proceeding from, suspense or doubt. [Obs.]
        "Expectation held his look suspense." --Milton.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Suspense \Sus*pense"\, n. [From F. suspens, a. See {Suspense},
     a.]
     1. The state of being suspended; specifically, a state of
        uncertainty and expectation, with anxiety or apprehension;
        indetermination; indecision; as, the suspense of a person
        waiting for the verdict of a jury.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Ten days the prophet in suspense remained. --Denham.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Upon the ticklish balance of suspense. --Cowper.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Cessation for a time; stop; pause.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              A cool suspense from pleasure and from pain. --Pope.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. [Cf. F. suspense.] (Law) A temporary cessation of one's
        right; suspension, as when the rent or other profits of
        land cease by unity of possession of land and rent.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Suspense account} (Bookkeeping), an account in which
        receipts or disbursements are temporarily entered until
        their proper position in the books is determined.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  suspense
       n 1: apprehension about what is going to happen
       2: an uncertain cognitive state; "the matter remained in
          suspense for several years"
       3: excited anticipation of an approaching climax; "the play
          kept the audience in suspense"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  124 Moby Thesaurus words for "suspense":
     abeyance, agitation, all-overs, angst, anticipation, anxiety,
     anxiety hysteria, anxiety neurosis, anxious bench, anxious concern,
     anxious seat, anxiousness, apathy, apprehension, apprehensiveness,
     cankerworm of care, capriciousness, care, catalepsy, catatonia,
     chance, chanciness, changeableness, cliff-hanging, concern,
     concernment, danglement, dangling, deadliness, deathliness,
     dependence, dependency, disquiet, disquietude, distress,
     disturbance, dormancy, doubt, dread, entropy, erraticism,
     erraticness, excitement, expectancy, expectant waiting,
     expectation, fear, fickleness, foreboding, forebodingness, hanging,
     hesitancy, hesitation, incalculability, incertitude, indecision,
     indecisiveness, indefiniteness, indemonstrability, indeterminacy,
     indetermination, indeterminism, indifference, indolence, inertia,
     inertness, inquietude, insecurity, irresolution, languor, latency,
     lotus-eating, luck, malaise, misgiving, moratorium, nervous strain,
     nervous tension, nervousness, overanxiety, passiveness, passivity,
     pendency, pendulosity, pendulousness, pensileness, pensility,
     perturbation, pessimism, pins and needles, pucker, randomness,
     solicitude, stagnancy, stagnation, stasis, stew, strain,
     suspensefulness, suspension, tension, torpor, trouble,
     unaccountability, uncertainness, uncertainty,
     uncertainty principle, undecidedness, undeterminedness, uneasiness,
     unforeseeableness, unpredictability, unprovability, unquietness,
     unsureness, unverifiability, upset, vacillation, vegetation,
     vexation, vis inertiae, waiting, whimsicality, zeal
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  SUSPENSE. When a rent, profit a prendre, and the like, are, in consequence 
  of the unity of possession of the rent, &c., of the land out of which they 
  issue, not in esse for a time, they are said to be in suspense, tunc 
  dormiunt, but they may be revived or awakened. Co, Litt. 313 a.