abort
Americanverb (used without object)
-
aborts,
present (3rd person singular)
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aborted,
past participle, past
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aborting
present participle
-
to bring forth a fetus from the uterus before the fetus is viable; miscarry.
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to develop incompletely; remain in a rudimentary or undeveloped state.
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to fail, cease, or stop at an early or premature stage.
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Military. to fail to accomplish a purpose or mission for any reason other than enemy action.
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Rocketry. (of a missile) to stop before the scheduled flight is completed.
verb (used with object)
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aborts,
present (3rd person singular)
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aborted,
past participle, past
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aborting
present participle
-
to cause to bring forth (a fetus) from the uterus before the fetus is viable.
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to cause (a pregnant female) to be delivered of a nonviable fetus.
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to cause to cease or end at an early or premature stage.
We aborted our vacation when the car broke down.
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to terminate (a missile flight, mission, etc.) before completion.
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to put down or quell in the early stages.
Troops aborted the uprising.
noun
verb
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to undergo or cause (a woman) to undergo the termination of pregnancy before the fetus is viable
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(tr) to cause (a fetus) to be expelled from the womb before it is viable
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(intr) to fail to come to completion; go wrong
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(tr) to stop the development of; cause to be abandoned
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(intr) to give birth to a dead or nonviable fetus
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(of a space flight, military operation, etc) to fail or terminate prematurely
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(intr) (of an organism or part of an organism) to fail to develop into the mature form
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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abortsimple
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abortssimple
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have abortedperfect
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has abortedperfect
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am abortingprogressive
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are abortingprogressive
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is abortingprogressive
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have been abortingperfect progressive
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has been abortingperfect progressive
Past
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abortedsimple
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had abortedperfect
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was abortingprogressive
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were abortingprogressive
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had been abortingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of abort
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”; cf. orient ( def. )
Explanation
To abort something is to end it. When something is aborted, it's finished. In a movie, you may have seen people on some kind of mission yelling "Abort! Abort!" That means "Stop!" When you abort a plan or activity, you're ending it, usually prematurely. If you abort a dinner, you cancel it in the middle. If the police abort a raid, they stop it after it has already begun. A writer could abort a novel after writing a chapter or two. You can't abort something that hasn't been started: that's more like canceling or postponing.
Vocabulary lists containing abort
"The Science of Breakable Things" by Tae Keller, List 4
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Trump's Top 50 Most Relevant Words
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Novel Study: The Bluest Eye, Pages IX–93
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It also apparently has some weird all-knowing knowledge, because it warns its clueless mom about all the evil characters conspiring to abort the baby.
From Slate ● Sep. 26, 2026
Ahmed and Gilkar had asked West to abort the pregnancy after a scan at 20 weeks showed the foetus had a severe heart defect.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026
When Gavalas reported seeing a car just like his own, Gemini told him it was part of a government surveillance operation and told him to abort the mission.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 12, 2026
An oxygen tank had exploded in their spacecraft, forcing them to abort their lunar landing plans.
From Barron's ● Apr. 4, 2026
“We could abort this mission right now and still make a fortune in patents.”
From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer
At the same time, the plant aborts nearly all fruits that contain larvae, which helps limit the plant's resource investment.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 12, 2026
A “go-around” refers to when an aircraft aborts a landing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2023
At the end of "Thalidomide," Plath writes, "The glass cracks across, / The image / Flees and aborts like dropped mercury."
From Salon ● Mar. 8, 2022
October: The Houston Space Center aborts a launch after six seconds.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 30, 2021
The Weschcke produces no pollen, being one of those curious freaks of nature which aborts its staminate flowers before they reach maturity.
From Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Thirty-Seventh Annual Report Wooster, Ohio, September 3, 4, 5, 1946 by Northern Nut Growers Association
That was highlighted amid the fallout over FFE, when Wenger, who has traditionally been loyal to Infantino, distanced himself from the aborted plot.
From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026
That meant the formation laps had to be aborted, and a new code written and given to the teams to upload to ensure that did not happen again.
From BBC ● Oct. 6, 2026
“Your Mother” came together after Tariq and Ali failed to get a “Blade” reboot green-lighted, with Ali utilizing his martial-arts training from that aborted Marvel project.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026
A United Airlines crew twice aborted their takeoff, and then declared an emergency.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
The Nichrome wire was lying in the charred remains of the cork, which had either slipped or been pushed out of place by the aborted exhaust.
From "October Sky" by Homer Hickam
He lost a bid for San Diego mayor in 2012, and two tries for Congress, and also twice pursued a voter ID ballot measure before aborting the efforts.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 18, 2026
Such is her agony at the memory of aborting their baby that she relies on her diary entries from the time to carry the weight.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026
The trial of a woman accused of illegally aborting her baby collapsed due to "appalling and sloppy" reporting by the BBC, a judge has said.
From BBC ● Dec. 23, 2024
“Aborting takeoff, aborting takeoff,” the United pilot responded.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 14, 2023
A familiar example is the role of those two diseases in aborting the French effort, and nearly aborting the ultimately successful American effort, to construct the Panama Canal.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
