Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Failing to accomplish an intended objective; fruitless.
- adjective Biology Partially or imperfectly developed.
- adjective Causing or meant to cause abortion; abortifacient.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To cause to fail or miscarry.
- To fail; perish; come to nought.
- Brought forth in an imperfect condition; imperfectly formed or inadequately developed, as an animal or vegetable production; rudimentary.
- Suppressed; kept imperfect; remaining rudimentary, or not advancing to perfection in form or function: a frequent use of the term in zoölogy. Compare
vestigial . - Hence Not brought to completion or to a successful issue; failing; miscarrying; coming to nought: as, an abortive scheme.
- In botany, defective; barren. A. Gray.
- Producing nothing; chaotic; ineffectual.
- In medicine, producing or intended to produce abortion; abortifacient: as, abortive drugs.
- Deformed; monstrous.
- noun That which is produced prematurely; an abortion; a monstrous birth.
- noun A drug causing abortion; an abortifacient.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun obsolete That which is born or brought forth prematurely; an abortion.
- noun obsolete A fruitless effort or issue.
- noun A medicine to which is attributed the property of causing abortion; -- also called an
abortifacient . - adjective rare Produced by abortion; born prematurely.
- adjective obsolete Made from the skin of a still-born animal.
- adjective obsolete Rendering fruitless or ineffectual.
- adjective Coming to naught; failing in its effect; miscarrying; fruitless; unsuccessful.
- adjective (Biol.) Imperfectly formed or developed; rudimentary; sterile
- adjective Causing abortion.
- adjective Cutting short.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective medicine, rare, attributive Causing abortion;
abortifacient - adjective medicine Cutting short; acting to halt or slow the progress (of a disease).
- noun obsolete A medicine to which is
attributed the property of causing abortion,abortifacient .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective failing to accomplish an intended result
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word abortive.
Examples
-
The term abortive organ has been thus applied to above structure (as
The Foundations of the Origin of Species Two Essays written in 1842 and 1844 Charles Darwin 1845
-
James, cut off in the prime of life, may almost be called the abortive
Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets, Complete George Gilfillan 1845
-
There is another grand class of facts relating to what are called abortive organs.
The Foundations of the Origin of Species Two Essays written in 1842 and 1844 Charles Darwin 1845
-
James, cut off in the prime of life, may almost be called the abortive
Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets, Volume 1 George Gilfillan 1845
-
Romney this week toughened his language in decrying the new health care rule, on Monday saying the requirement to cover "contraceptives, morning-after pills, in other words abortive pills," was a "violation of conscience."
USATODAY.com Feed 2012
-
"This just might be the same administration that said that the churches and the institutions they run such as schools and…adoptions agencies, hospitals, that they have to provide for their employees free of charge contraceptives, morning after pills, in other words abortive pills, and the like, at no cost," Romney added.
-
Mitt Romney, as Governor of Massachussetts, vetoed a contraception bill claiming the emergency contraception was an "abortive" drug.
-
He vetoed it because, he believes, EC is an "abortive" drug.
-
The "abortive" reference, though, was to an interesting little fight within the Clinton campaign in which Verdi was on the losing side.
Freddy's Third Guru 2005
-
The "abortive" reference, though, was to an interesting little fight within the Clinton campaign in which Verdi was on the losing side.
Freddy's Third Guru 2005
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.