[f. SUSPEND v. + -ER1.]
I. One who or that which suspends.
1. One who or that which puts a stop to something, esp. temporarily.
1524. Extr. Aberd. Reg. (1844), I. 108. The suspendaris of the said kirk being charply persewit for the said expensis.
1867. Contemp. Rev., V. 455. Time itself is the great suspender of controversy.
† 2. One who suspends his judgment; a doubter, hesitator. Obs. rare–1.
1625. Mountagu, App. Cæsar, II. v. 146. The cautelousnes of suspenders, and not forward concluders.
3. Sc. Law. One who presents a bill of suspension: see SUSPENSION 4, and cf. SUSPEND v. 6 b.
1650. Acts of Sederunt, 16 Jan. (1790), 63. The Lords declairis, That whair the groundis of the chairges are decreittis before inferior judges, the suspender, in that case, is onlie heirby haldin either to produce the decreitt, or ane instrument of refusall theirof.
1698. in Sir H. Dalrymple, Decisions (1792), 7. The suspender having neglected the legal remedy of suspension.
1774. in A. McKay, Hist. Kilmarnock (1864), 303. The suspenders have given a very erroneous state of the … manner in which this green was acquired.
1838. W. Bell, Dict. Law Scot., s.v. Suspension, The ordinary course … is for the suspender to ask the Lord Ordinary to pronounce an order for revising the reasons of suspension and answers.
1868. Act 31 & 32 Vict., c. 100 § 2. The word ‘pursuer’ shall include complainer, suspender, petitioner, or appellant.
II. That by which something is suspended.
4. One of a pair of straps passing over the shoulders to hold up the trousers: = BRACE sb.2 9 b: usually in pl. Chiefly U.S.
1804. Raleigh Register, 15 Oct., 3/2. Thirty Dollars Reward. Absented himself … a NEGRO BOY named George…. He had on … brown Linen Pantaloons, with Suspenders.
1810. Massachusetts Spy, 23 May, 3/2. Part of the buckle of his suspenders and several pieces of his coat … were extracted from the wound.
1830. Marryat, King’s Own, ii. Loose trousers, tightened at the hips, to preclude the necessity of suspenders.
1841. Syd. Smith, in Lady Holland, Mem. (1855), II. 442. Correspondences are like small-clothes before the invention of suspenders; it is impossible to keep them up.
1883. ‘Mark Twain,’ Life Mississippi, iv. 45. He wore a leather belt and used no suspenders.
attrib. 1833. [S. Smith], Lett. J. Downing, xxii. (1835), 130. And jest then the Gineral got in a way he has of twitchin with his suspender buttons behind.
b. A device attached to the top of a stocking or sock to hold it up in place.
1895. Army & Navy Co-op. Soc. Price List, 108. Ladies’ Stocking Suspenders. Ibid., 1134. Half Hose Suspenders.
5. An apparatus or a natural structure that supports something suspended.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 642. The second improvement described by the patentee, is the construction of ‘suspenders,’ to be substituted instead of the ordinary blocks.
1874. Cooke, Fungi, 168. The suspender of the larger copulative cell.
1895. Arnold & Sons’ Catal. Surg. Instrum., 704. Suspender (Keetley’s), with woollen bag [for scrotal hernia].
b. A tanning-pit in which the hides are suspended.
1882. Encycl. Brit., XIV. 384/2. In these pits (also called suspenders) the hides are suspended over poles laid across the pit, and they are moved daily from one to another of a series of four or six.
III. Something that is suspended.
6. A hanging basket, vase, etc., as for flowers.
1878. Jewitt, Ceramic Art, I. 425. Vases, tazzas, brackets, pedestals, suspenders, terminals, flower vases.
