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Posted: **Fri Nov 12, 2010 7:26 pm**

1. The condition of being temporarily set aside; suspension: held the plan in abeyance.

John, meanwhile, sat collapsed, his chin sunk upon his chest, his mind in abeyance.

Katharine's common sense, which had been in abeyance for the past week or two, still failed her, and she could only ask, "But where's your luggage?

But in a very short time, all these efforts at communal legislation fell into abeyance.
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Posted: **Sat Nov 13, 2010 6:12 pm**

abeyance
1520s, from Anglo-Fr. abeiance "suspension," also "expectation (especially in a lawsuit)," from O.Fr. abeance "aspiration, desire," noun of condition of abeer "aspire after, gape" from à "at" + ba(y)er "be open," from L. *batare "to yawn, gape" (see abash). Originally in O.Fr. a legal term, "condition of a person in expectation or hope of receiving property;" it turned around in English law to mean "condition of property temporarily without an owner" (1650s). Root baer is also the source of English bay (2) "recessed space," as in "bay window."

When it comes to pain, I would rather have my pain abate, than be in abeyance!