suspension

suspension (səˈspɛnʃən)
—n
1.	an interruption or temporary revocation: the suspension of a law
2.	a temporary debarment, as from position, privilege, etc
3.	a deferment, esp of a decision, judgment, etc
4.	law
	a.  a postponement of execution of a sentence or the deferring of a judgment, etc
	b.  a temporary extinguishment of a right or title
5.	cessation of payment of business debts, esp as a result of insolvency
6.	the act of suspending or the state of being suspended
7.	See also hydraulic suspension a system of springs, shock absorbers, etc, that supports the body of a wheeled or tracked vehicle and insulates it and its occupants from shocks transmitted by the wheels
8.	a device or structure, usually a wire or spring, that serves to suspend or support something, such as the pendulum of a clock
9.	chem See also colloid a dispersion of fine solid or liquid particles in a fluid, the particles being supported by buoyancy
10.	the process by which eroded particles of rock are transported in a river
11.	music one or more notes of a chord that are prolonged until a subsequent chord is sounded, usually to form a dissonance

suspension

"A semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith." [Coleridge, "Biographia Literaria," 1817]

Meaning "action of hanging by a support from above" is attested from 1546. Suspension bridge first recorded 1821.

suspension sus·pen·sion (sə-spěn'shən)
n.

1. A noncolloidal dispersion of solid particles in a liquid, often used for pharmaceutical preparations.

2. The fixation of an organ to other tissue for support, as the uterus.

3. The hanging of a part from a support, such as a plaster-encased limb.

suspension   (sə-spěn'shən)  Pronunciation Key  A mixture in which small particles of a substance are dispersed throughout a gas or liquid. If a suspension is left undisturbed, the particles are likely to settle to the bottom. The particles in a suspension are larger than those in either a colloid or a solution. Muddy water is an example of a suspension. Compare colloid, solution.

suspension definition

In lazy evaluation, a suspension (or in Henderson's terminology, a "recipe") is a closure with a flag indicating whether the expression has been evaluated or not. When the expression is evaluated the first time, this flag is set. Subsequent requests for the value of the expression will not attempt to re-evaluate it.
(1995-02-06)