suspend

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• intransitive verb To bar for a period from a privilege, office, or position, usually as a punishment.
• intransitive verb To cause to stop for a period; interrupt.
• intransitive verb To hold in abeyance; defer: synonym: defer.
• intransitive verb To render temporarily ineffective.
• intransitive verb Music To hold or prolong (a note or notes) in suspension.
• intransitive verb To hang so as to allow free movement.
• intransitive verb To support or keep from falling without apparent attachment, as by buoyancy.
• intransitive verb Chemistry To disperse or put (particles, for example) in suspension.
• intransitive verb To cease for a period; delay.
• intransitive verb To fail to make payments or meet obligations.
• idiom (suspend disbelief) To accept as plausible something one knows to be untrue, especially the setting and plot of a drama or fiction so as to allow the appreciation of art.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To cause to hang; make to depend from anything; hang: as, to suspend a ball by a thread; hence, to hold, or keep from falling or sinking, as if by hanging: as, solid particles suspended in a liquid.
• To make to depend (on).
• To cause to cease for a time; hinder from proceeding; interrupt; stay; delay: as, all business was suspended.
• To hold undetermined; refrain from forming or concluding definitely: as, to suspend one's opinion.
• To debar, usually for a time, from any privilege, from the execution of an office, or from the enjoyment of income: as, a student suspended for some breach of discipline (rarely, in this use, suspended from college).
• To cause to cease for a time from operation or effect: as, to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act; to suspend the rules of a deliberative assembly.
• In music, to hold back or postpone the progression of (a voice-part) while the other parts proceed, usually producing a temporary discord. See suspension, 5.
• To cease from operation; desist from active employment; specifically, to stop payment, or be unable to meet one's engagements.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• intransitive verb To cease from operation or activity; esp., to stop payment, or be unable to meet obligations or engagements (said of a commercial firm or a bank).
• transitive verb To attach to something above; to hang.
• transitive verb Archaic To make to depend.
• transitive verb To cause to cease for a time; to hinder from proceeding; to interrupt; to delay; to stay.
• transitive verb To hold in an undetermined or undecided state.
• transitive verb To debar, or cause to withdraw temporarily, from any privilege, from the execution of an office, from the enjoyment of income, etc.
• transitive verb To cause to cease for a time from operation or effect
• transitive verb (Chem.) To support in a liquid, as an insoluble powder, by stirring, to facilitate chemical action.
• transitive verb (Com.) to cease paying debts or obligations; to fail; -- said of a merchant, a bank, etc.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• verb To halt something temporarily
• verb To hang freely; underhang
• verb To bring a solid substance, usually in powder form, into suspension in a liquid
• verb To discontinue or interrupt a function, task, position, or event.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• verb make inoperative or stop
• verb render temporarily ineffective
• verb hang freely
• verb bar temporarily; from school, office, etc.
• verb cause to be held in suspension in a fluid
• verb stop a process or a habit by imposing a freeze on it