- Riparian zone: the land that occurs along the edges of rivers, streams, lakes, and other water bodies that may be submerged during flood
- Purgatory: the place (in Catholicism) where sins are punished after death and where a soul is purified before it can go to Heaven
- Puberty: the process of physical maturation where an adolescent reaches sexual maturity
- Second age: the second era of one’s life after childhood and adolescence (the first age) but before retirement (the third age)
- Progression: the process of developing or moving gradually towards a more advanced state
- Intertidal zone: the area above water level at low tide that is underwater at high tide
- Interstitial space: the fluid-filled spaces between blood vessels and cells
- Waiting room: part of a building or a room where people sit or stand until the event or appointment for which they are waiting begins
- Halfway house: a place where people who have recently left a prison, mental hospital, etc., can live until they are considered ready to live by themselves
- Hibernation: a state of minimal activity and metabolic depression undergone by some animal species most usually during the colder months
- Hypnagogic state: a transitional stage between wakefulness and sleep, in which sensory perceptions can be experienced
- Buffer zone: an area of land that separates two other areas that is designed to prevent fighting or harm coming to something or someone
- Interstitial fluid: the fluid that fills interstitial space
- Regression: a return to a former or less developed state
- Gender transition (sometimes called second puberty): the process of changing one’s gender presentation or sex characteristics to accord with one’s internal sense of gender
- Holding pattern: the flight path maintained by an aircraft awaiting permission to land
- Limbo: a state of uncertainty
- Eye: a region of mostly calm weather at the centre of tropical cyclones
- Demilitarised zone: an area in which treaties or agreements between states, military powers or contending groups forbid military installations, activities, or personnel
- Lobby: a room providing a space out of which one or more other rooms or corridors lead, typically one near the entrance of a public building
- Lull: a period of quiet or calm in a longer period of activity or excitement
- Migration: the movement from one part of something to another, usually for a purpose
- Adjournment: a temporary stopping of a trial, hearing, enquiry, or other meeting, whether for a comfort stop, lunch, a new day or when the hearing has concluded
Is there a name that describes the period of time between a hearing and the associated judgement? If there isn’t there really, really should be. It appears to have the emotional viscosity of claggy, unenthusiastic custard. Without any warm sticky date pudding to sweeten the deal.