adv. [f. prec. + -LY2.] In a suspensive manner. † a. SUSPENSELY. Obs. b. Suspensively conditional, involving a suspensive condition: see prec. 4. c. In the suspension or hanging: fig. in dependence on.
1617. Collins, Def. Bp. Ely, II. x. 413. The profoundnesse of this mysterie leads vs to wade thus softly and suspensiuely.
1818. Colebrooke, Obligations, 212. If either the original or substituted engagement be suspensively conditional.
1872. Bushnell, Serm. Living Subj., 56. We become aerial creatures, resting suspensively on things above the world. Ibid., 58. He begins to live suspensively on God.
So Suspensiveness.
1816. T. L. Peacock, Headlong Hall, xii. An illustrious robber who … was suddenly checked in his career by means of a certain quality inherent in preparations of hemp, which, for the sake of perspicuity, I shall call suspensiveness.
1898. Sweet, New Eng. Gram., II. 37. The level tone is plaintive … and suggests the idea of suspensiveness.
