Other forms: suspended, suspending, suspends
To suspend is to stop something for a time, or to ban somebody temporarily. Suspend the service, suspended from school, suspend judgement.
A suspended sentence is one that is not served unless the person offends again, which is a common disposal in English courts. Suspend disbelief is what an audience does for a story to work. The other sense is to hang: suspended from the ceiling, suspended in liquid. Note suspension, which covers all of it plus the springs on a car; and that suspend and suspense come from the same hanging.
1verbsuspendTo stop something for a time, or ban somebody temporarily.
“The match was suspended because of heavy rain.”
2verbhangTo hang something.
“A huge glass chandelier was suspended from the ceiling of the ballroom.”
Also accepted in games: pause, halt
Latin suspendere is sub-, under, plus pendere, to hang. Suspense is being left hanging, and a suspended sentence hangs over somebody — the metaphor is doing real work in both.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)pend-
Latin
suspendo
Old French
sospendre
English, today
suspend
From Old French sospendre, from Latin suspendo.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA