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View synonyms for abort

abort

[ uh-bawrt ]

verb (used without object)

  1. to bring forth a fetus from the uterus before the fetus is viable; miscarry.
  2. to develop incompletely; remain in a rudimentary or undeveloped state.
  3. to fail, cease, or stop at an early or premature stage.
  4. Military. to fail to accomplish a purpose or mission for any reason other than enemy action.
  5. Rocketry. (of a missile) to stop before the scheduled flight is completed.


verb (used with object)

  1. to cause to bring forth (a fetus) from the uterus before the fetus is viable.
  2. to cause (a pregnant female) to be delivered of a nonviable fetus.
  3. to cause to cease or end at an early or premature stage:

    We aborted our vacation when the car broke down.

  4. to terminate (a missile flight, mission, etc.) before completion.
  5. to put down or quell in the early stages:

    Troops aborted the uprising.

noun

  1. a missile, rocket, etc., that has aborted.

abort

/ əˈbɔːt /

verb

  1. to undergo or cause (a woman) to undergo the termination of pregnancy before the fetus is viable
  2. tr to cause (a fetus) to be expelled from the womb before it is viable
  3. intr to fail to come to completion; go wrong
  4. tr to stop the development of; cause to be abandoned
  5. intr to give birth to a dead or nonviable fetus
  6. (of a space flight, military operation, etc) to fail or terminate prematurely
  7. intr (of an organism or part of an organism) to fail to develop into the mature form
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


noun

  1. the premature termination or failure of (a space flight, military operation, etc)
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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Other Words From

  • una·borted adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of abort1

First recorded in 1570–80; from Latin abortus “miscarried,” past participle of aborīrī “to disappear, miscarry,” equivalent to ab- ab- + orīrī “to rise, come into being”; orient ( def )
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Word History and Origins

Origin of abort1

C16: from Latin abortāre, from the past participle of aborīrī to miscarry, from ab- wrongly, badly + orīrī to appear, arise, be born
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Example Sentences

The executive then sends out an abort signal to the brain’s memory center, the hippocampus.

If the NFT thinks the TAGSAM arm is coming down on something dangerous flagged by the hazard map, it will automatically execute an abort burn that moves the spacecraft up and away from the surface.

Because the abort was triggered just before the rocket's main RS-68 engines had begun to ignite, the delay before the next launch attempt may be less than a week.

Ellen makes her choice, and she throws herself down the stairs to abort the baby.

They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton.

Devastated, she climbed with feral intensity, hoping the baby might spontaneously abort.

Well, Sarah Palin is travelling across the country alerting people that “angry atheists” want to “abort Christ from Christmas.”

All of a sudden, Mission Control (voiced by Ed Harris, paying homage to Apollo 13) orders the team to abort immediately.

I've tried my best to abort this big bug, but I can't find anything amiss.

After we took off and headed for Europe across the Channel there would usually be someone who would abort the mission.

Some appearances make me think that they abort by becoming confluent with the main petiole.

Continuous application of equal parts of alcohol and water night and day may abort it.

The bruised leaves are used locally in painful affections of the joints and to abort syphilitic buboes and abscesses of all kinds.

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