leave hanging

1. Also,. Keep undecided, uncertain, or in suspense. For example, Since we hadn't found a big enough hall, we left the final date hanging, or She couldn't figure out a good ending for the book, so her audience was left hanging in midair.

Example Sentences

Blaiklock said the court shouldn’t leave hanging a potential legal dispute over whether differing actions by the governor or Legislature would prevail during a future emergency.

Read more on Washington Times

Shor’s performance is in many ways series’ the most moving — we are primed for Liza and Maggie and Kelsey to succeed in some way or another, but Diana is the kind of character many series would be satisfied to portray as a villain or a fool and mock or punish or just leave hanging.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

I like for readers to be able to develop their own ideas about what might follow from the few threads I leave hanging.

Read more on The New Yorker

In 1937 President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Brownlow Committee warned of the dangers of a “headless fourth branch” of government and argued that “no administrative reorganization worthy of the name can leave hanging in the air more than a dozen powerful, irresponsible agencies free to determine policy and administer law.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Blumberg said that for lifers, commutation is preferable because it doesn’t leave hanging the threat of a return to life in prison for a violation of release conditions.

Read more on Washington Post

Related Words

• depart 
• drop 
• drop out 
• give up 
• go 
• pull out 
• relinquish 
• renounce 
• retire 
• surrender 
• vacate 
• withdraw