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SUSPENSE
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
An uncertain cognitive state
Example:
the matter remained in suspense for several years
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("suspense" is a kind of...):
doubt; doubtfulness; dubiety; dubiousness; incertitude; uncertainty (the state of being unsure of something)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Excited anticipation of an approaching climax
Example:
the play kept the audience in suspense
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
Hypernyms ("suspense" is a kind of...):
anticipation; expectancy (an expectation)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Apprehension about what is going to happen
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
Hypernyms ("suspense" is a kind of...):
apprehension; apprehensiveness; dread (fearful expectation or anticipation)
Context examples:
The inside of the cottage was dark, and I heard no motion; I cannot describe the agony of this suspense.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
I waited in an agony of suspense until she came back with her report.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Beth hurried on in a flutter of suspense.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Her whole happiness seemed at stake, while the affair was in suspense, and everything secured when it was determined that the lodgings should be taken for another fortnight.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
Elizabeth, who was left by herself, now smiled at the rapidity and ease with which an affair was finally settled, that had given them so many previous months of suspense and vexation.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
Of late it had been easy enough for me to look sad: a cankering evil sat at my heart and drained my happiness at its source—the evil of suspense.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
The Duke is greatly agitated, and, as to me, you have seen yourselves the state of nervous prostration to which the suspense and the responsibility have reduced me.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Such events are very interesting, but the suspense of them cannot last long.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
It was the second in Mr. Micawber's week of suspense.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
And then suddenly, after a week of helpless suspense there came a flash of light.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
