abortive
/əˈbɔː.tɪv/US/əˈbɔɹ.tɪv/
abortive adjective: produced by abortion; born prematurely and therefore unnatural.
Adjective
abortive (comparative more abortive, superlative most abortive)
- Produced by abortion; born prematurely and therefore unnatural.
- an abortive child
- Thou elvish-marked, abortive, rooting hog!c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
- Coming to nothing; failing in its effect. .
- an abortive attempt
- […] and with utter loss of being / Threatens him, plung'd in that abortive gulf.1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, published 1799
- Synonyms:
- miscarrying, fruitless, unsuccessful, useless
- Imperfectly formed or developed; rudimentary; sterile.
- an abortive organ
- an abortive stamen
- Causing abortion; abortifacient.
- abortive medicines1809, Bartholomew Parr, Medical Dictionary
- Each country may have a different prevalence of infectious abortive agents. The most common agents of abortion in cattle are Brucella spp., Campylobacter spp., Chlamydiaceae, Coxiella burnetii, Leptospira spp., […]2018 May, Carla Sebastiania, Ludovica Curcioa, Marcella Ciulloa, Deborah Crucianib, Silvia Crottib, Cristina Pescab, Martina Torricellia, Martina Sebastianellia, Andrea Felicic, Massimo Biagetti, “A...
- Cutting short; acting to halt or slow the progress (of a disease).
- abortive treatment of typhoid fever
- Even with prophylaxis, children often experience episodic breakthrough headaches that require abortive treatment. […] Abortive therapies in the ED include dopamine antagonists and anti-inflammatory agents.2016 December, David C. Sheridan, Garth D. Meckler, “Inpatient Pediatric Migraine Treatment: Does Choice of Abortive Therapy Affect Length of Stay?”, in The Journal of Pediatrics, volume 179, →DOI...
- Having a short and mild progression, without pronounced symptoms.
- Made from the skin of a still-born animal.
- abortive vellum
Noun
abortive (plural abortives)
- Someone or something born or brought forth prematurely; an abortion.
- A fruitless effort.
- A medicine that causes abortion, an abortifacient.
- A medicine or treatment acting to halt or slow the progress of a disease.
- Naphthalin was praised by Rosbach as an abortive in typhoid fever; Kraemer in 1886, Wilcox in 1887, Sehwald in 1889 and Wolff of Philadelphia in 1891 confirmed Rosbach's observations.1897 August 7, E. Viko, “On the Treatment of Typhoid Fever”, in The Journal of the American Medical Association, volume 29, number 6, Chicago, Ill., →DOI, page 274
Verb
abortive (third-person singular simple present abortives, present participle abortiving, simple past and past participle abortived)
- To cause an abortion; to render without fruit.
abortive meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
abortive in Hindi
- निष्फल, वृरथा, अपूर्ण काल, गर्भपात की औषधि, अपूर्ण रूप से विकसित, अधूरा
abortive in Tamil
- உருப்பெறாத, சிதைந்த, சித்தியடையாகாத, வளர்ச்சி தடைப்பட்ட, குறை நோய், உரிய காலத்துக்குமுன் பிறந்த
abortive in Urdu
- ابتدائی, ناکارہ, ناقص, قبل از وقت
abortive in Bengali
- ব্যর্থ
More languagesFewer languages
- abortive in Malayalam
- പാഴായ, വിഫലമായ, പൂർത്തിയാകാത്ത, അലസിപ്പിക്കുക
- abortive in Kannada
- ಕೈಗೂಡದ, ಬೆಳೆಗೂಡದ, ಇಳಿಕ, ಮೈಯಿಳಿಕ
- abortive in Arabic
- سَقْط saqṭ
- abortive in Persian
- بی نتیجه
Examples of abortive in a sentence
- The king in vain excused his hasty retreats and abortive enterprises1838, William H. Prescott, History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella:
- He made a salutation, or, to speak nearer the truth, an ill-defined, abortive attempt at curtsy.1851 April 9, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC:
- It now owns all five of the vehicles fitted with generators for the abortive Nightstar services through the Channel Tunnel.2025 October 29, James Steward tells Joe Campbell, “Thriving on the stock exchange”, in RAIL, number 1047, page 46:
Synonyms of abortive
Forms of abortive
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more abortive |
| superlative | most abortive |
| Noun | |
| plural | abortives |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | abortives |
| present participle | abortiving |
| past participle | abortived |
| past | abortived |
Origin of abortive
First attested in 1382, with the meaning "causing stillbirth or miscarriage". From Middle English abortif, from Old French abortif, from Latin abortīvus (“causing abortion”), from aborior (“miscarry, disappear”), from ab (“amiss”) + orior (“appear, be born, arise”).
Words formed from abortive
Questions about abortive
- What does abortive mean?
- Abortive means produced by abortion; born prematurely and therefore unnatural.
- What is abortive in Hindi?
- Abortive in Hindi is निष्फल, वृरथा, अपूर्ण काल. See Abortive meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use abortive in a sentence?
- The king in vain excused his hasty retreats and abortive enterprises
- What part of speech is abortive?
- Abortive can be an adjective, a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce abortive?
- Abortive is pronounced /əˈbɔɹ.tɪv/ (US).
Words near abortive in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: abortive (page history and authors); abortive (Hindi Wiktionary) (page history and authors); abortive (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); abortive (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); abortive (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); abortive (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); abortive (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Mélange a trois-abortive.wav.
Cite this entry: “abortive.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/abortive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.