SUSPENSE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does suspense mean? 

• SUSPENSE (noun)
  The noun SUSPENSE has 3 senses:

1. apprehension about what is going to happen

2. an uncertain cognitive state

3. excited anticipation of an approaching climax

  Familiarity information: SUSPENSE used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SUSPENSE (noun)

Sense 1

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)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An uncertain cognitive state

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Context example:

the matter remained in suspense for several years

Hypernyms ("suspense" is a kind of...):

doubt; doubtfulness; dubiety; dubiousness; incertitude; uncertainty (the state of being unsure of something)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Excited anticipation of an approaching climax

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Context example:

the play kept the audience in suspense

Hypernyms ("suspense" is a kind of...):

anticipation; expectancy (an expectation)

 Context examples 

I have been walking all this way in complete suspense.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The time went by, and the suspense, to me, was terrible.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He cannot be kept in his present state of suspense.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Their suspense lasted an hour or two.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

I waited with a sick feeling of suspense.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

At ten o'clock, she trusted, or at least not much later her mother would be relieved from the dreadful suspense in which she must now be travelling towards them.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

This suspense, I know, is telling upon all of you; but it is now our intention to make an end of it.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Anything was possible, anything might be defied rather than suspense.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

The great national importance of the issue, the suspense in high quarters, the direct nature of the experiment which we were trying—all combined to work upon my nerve.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

However, come what might, I should have done with suspense and bring matters to a head to-night.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)