/əˈbɔːt/, /əˈbɔɹt/
OriginFrom Middle English, from Latin abortus, perfect active participle of aborior (“miscarry”), formed from ab + orior (“come into being”). Doublet of abortus.
- An early termination of a mission, action, or procedure in relation to missiles or spacecraft; the craft making such a mission.
“We've had aborts on three of our last seven launches.”
- The function used to abort a process.
- An event in which a process is aborted.
“We've had three aborts over the last two days.”
- archaicThe product of a miscarriage; an aborted offspring; an abortion.
- obsoleteA miscarriage; an untimely birth; an abortion.
“In Japonia 'tis a common thing to stifle their children if they be poor, or to make an abort, which Aristotle commends.”
- intransitive, regionalTo miscarry; to bring forth (non-living) offspring prematurely.
“Women have aborted, men have committed suicide, and both men and women have been thrown into convulsions during the fearful agony of renal colic.”
“In the study group ll patients aborted spontaneously between the 17th and 20th gestational week and 8 patients aborted after the 21st week.”
- intransitive, transitiveTo cause a premature termination of (a fetus); to end a pregnancy before term.
“"Of course, you can't abort yourself...I mean you positively can't be allowed to. To begin with it's a crime."”
- transitiveTo end prematurely; to stop in the preliminary stages; to turn back.
- intransitiveTo stop or fail at something in the preliminary stages.
- intransitiveTo become checked in normal development, so as either to remain rudimentary or shrink away wholly; to cease organic growth before maturation; to become sterile.
- transitiveTo cause an organism to develop minimally; to cause rudimentary development to happen; to prevent maturation.
- intransitiveTo abandon a mission at any point after the beginning of the mission and prior to its completion.
“First he aborts the take-off and now we have a runway incursion!”
- transitiveTo terminate a mission involving a missile or rocket; to destroy a missile or rocket prematurely.
- transitiveTo terminate a process prior to completion.
Formsaborts(plural) · aborts(present, singular, third-person) · aborting(participle, present) · aborted(participle, past) · aborted(past)