abortion

Noun

abortion (countable and uncountable, plural abortions)

1. (now uncommon in general use) A spontaneous abortion; a miscarriage.
   • Swines-bread, so used, doth not onely speed / A tardy labour; but (without great heed) / If over it a Child-great Woman stride, / Instant abortion often doth betide.1605 [1578], Josuah, transl. Sylvester, “The Third Day of the First Week”, in Devine Weekes and Workes, translation of La Premiere Sepmaine by Guillaume de Salluste Du Bartas, lines 693–696
   • At any time after impregnation, abortion may take place: it is one of the most common complaints of pregnancy, whence it is a matter of no small consequence that every practitioner should well understand it.1809, William Nicholson, The British Encyclopaedia, volume IV

   Synonyms:

   miscarriage, misbirth

2. An induced abortion.
   • Mary decided to have an abortion because she was too young to raise a baby.
   • It is impossible for an abortion clinic to have a waiting list of more than nine months.1997, George Carlin, Brain Droppings, New York: Hyperion Books, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 93

   Synonyms:

   aborticide, feticide, foeticide, termination

3. (archaic) An aborted foetus; an abortus.
   • ‘It seems too hairy for an abortion, and too small for a mature birth.’1791, James Boswell, Life of Johnson, Oxford, published 2008, page 657
   • The Fascist poem, one may fear, will be a horrid little abortion such as one sees in a glass jar in the museum of some county town.1929, Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own
4. (figuratively) A misshapen person or thing; a monstrosity.
   • Insomuch that I do honestly believe, there can be no place in the world, where such intolerable abortions, begotten of the sculptor’s chisel, are to be found in such profusion, as in Rome.1846, Charles Dickens, chapter 10, in Pictures from Italy
   • His voice was the most pitiable abortion of a voice I had ever heard.1889, Edward Bellamy, “To Whom This May Come”, in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, New York, page 459, column 2
5. (figuratively) Failure or abandonment of a project, promise, goal etc.
   • The returning good sense of our country threatens abortion to their hopes, & they believe that any portion of power confided to me, will be exerted in opposition to their schemes.1800 September 23, Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush^(http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mtj:@field(DOCID+@lit(tj090069)))
   • The transfer or loss of the project manager before the project is completed will result in lost continuity and delay or the abortion of the project and/or the report.2013, Fakhry A. Assaad, James W. LaMoreaux, Travis Hughes, Field Methods for Geologists and Hydrogeologists, →ISBN, page 314
6. Arrest of development of any organ, so that it remains an imperfect formation or is absorbed.
7. The cessation of an illness or disease at a very early stage.