What does suspending mean?
Suspending means temporarily stopping, delaying, or holding up an activity, process, decision, or legal action. It is the present participle of “suspend” and is commonly used before a noun, as in “suspending operations” or “suspending a licence,” as well as in phrases such as “suspending sentence.” The word often implies that the action may later continue: suspension is generally a pause rather than a permanent cancellation. In legal and administrative contexts, it can refer to temporarily withholding permission or authority. It may also describe keeping a person or object physically held or suspended, though that sense is less common. Overall, the term is clear, formal, and widely understood, especially in news, government, business, and legal reporting.
To stop, delay, or temporarily interrupt the progress or enforcement of something.
"The council suspended its approval of the project."
The action is often temporary and may be resumed later.
Having the function or authority of temporarily stopping or delaying an activity or action.
"The governor has suspending power over the regulation."
This use is chiefly found in fixed phrases such as “suspending power” and “suspending sentence.”
Suspending is the power to pause a process without permanently ending it, and its familiar form is the phrase “suspending sentence”.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does suspending come from?
The word belongs to the Latin root suspendere, meaning “to hang up” or “to stop,” with the prefix sus- and the combining element pendere, “to hang.” In English, “suspend” developed the sense of stopping or temporarily withholding an action as well as the older physical sense of hanging. The present participle “suspending” follows the regular English inflection of the verb.
Related word forms
How suspending is actually used
The word is neutral to formal in most contexts, though it is especially common in legal, institutional, and administrative writing. When used attributively, it commonly forms phrases such as “suspending power” and “suspending sentence.”
Easily confused with suspending
As a verb form, suspending means stopping or delaying something; as an adjective, it describes a power or action that can temporarily interrupt an activity or authority.