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

noun

1. the premature termination or failure of (a space flight, military operation, etc)

Other Words From

• una·borted adjective

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 )

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

Example Sentences

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

From Singularity Hub 

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.

From MIT Technology Review

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.

From Ars Technica

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

From The Daily Beast

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

From The Daily Beast

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

From The Daily Beast

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

From The Daily Beast

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

From The Daily Beast

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

From Project Gutenberg

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

From Project Gutenberg

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

From Project Gutenberg

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

From Project Gutenberg

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

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• break off
• cut off
• halt
• interrupt
• nullify
• scrap
• scrub
• terminate