abort

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verb

ə-ˈbȯrt

aborted; aborting; aborts

intransitive verb

: to bring forth stillborn, nonviable, or premature offspring

: to become checked in development so as to degenerate or remain rudimentary

: to terminate a procedure prematurely

the pilot decided to abort due to mechanical difficulties

transitive verb

: to induce the abortion of or give birth to prematurely

: to terminate the pregnancy of before term

: to terminate prematurely : cancel

abort a project

abort a spaceflight

: to stop in the early stages

abort a disease

aborter noun

abort

2 of 2

noun

: the premature termination of a flight (as of an aircraft or spacecraft), a mission, or an action or procedure relating to a flight

a launch abort

Example Sentences

Verb They decided to abort the pregnancy. abort the launch of a rocket I suggest that you abort the project. The mission had to be aborted. When problems occurred during the launch, it was necessary to abort.

Recent Examples on the Web

Verb

Saboe relayed the information to Hidai, but as the family hid all their documents beneath Hidai’s wife’s clothes and prepared to rush from their home, Saboe got a message telling him to abort.

Michael Venutolo-mantovani, WIRED, 30 Aug. 2022 Following the news, Stell asked her doctor for a dilation and curettage procedure (D&C), a surgery to remove the fetus that is also used to abort a living fetus, in order to avoid infection or long-term health issues.

Vanessa Etienne, PEOPLE.com, 18 July 2022 As the New York Times reported in early July, in certain states, women who abort may be eligible for the death penalty.

Charlotte Shane, Harper’s Magazine , 28 Sep. 2022 Their conversation quickly escalates, with the fetus begging Monroe not to abort it.

Tess Garcia, Glamour, 28 Sep. 2022 But also, your party is championing the idea of not having kids as a badge, abort them.

Fox News Staff, Fox News, 23 Sep. 2022 Bueno and Estrada are some of the millions of women who made the difficult decision to abort.

Palabra, oregonlive, 6 July 2022 The delegation proceeded with the visit in direct opposition to Chinese demands that the U.S. abort the meeting.

Fox News, 6 Aug. 2022 If night temperatures fail to drop below 80 degrees and if daytime temps reach the mid to high 90s day after day, plants can stop producing flowers or even abort existing flowers.

Paul Cappiello, The Courier-Journal, 1 July 2022

Noun

Sarafin ticked off all of the launch accomplishments including all of the separation events for the rocket including the boosters, fairings, jettison of the launch abort system, shutdown the four RS-25 engines and jettison of the core stage.

Richard Tribou, Orlando Sentinel, 17 Nov. 2022 Engineers also installed a hard cover to protect the rocket’s launch abort system window and took other steps to prepare the ground systems.

Jackie Wattles, CNN, 10 Nov. 2022 Various safeguards, including installing a hard cover over the launch abort system, have been put in place to avoid damage during the storm.

Stephanie Mlot, PCMAG, 9 Nov. 2022 That was all contingent upon an offensive line that would block and a quarterback who would take care of the ball and abort bad plays, and neither is happening enough.

Nate Atkins, The Indianapolis Star, 24 Oct. 2022 At the time, Cruz was defying Mexican law by helping women—mostly poor women—abort at home.

Stephania Taladrid, The New Yorker, 10 Oct. 2022 Suddenly, at about one minute and five seconds into flight, the capsule’s emergency abort system kicked in, quickly shooting it away from the booster.

Christian Davenport, Washington Post, 12 Sep. 2022 The capsule’s launch abort system immediately kicked in, lifting the craft off the top.

BostonGlobe.com, 12 Sep. 2022 Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket suffered an unspecified booster-rocket failure just over a minute after launch on Monday, triggering its unoccupied capsule's emergency abort system.

Harold Maass, The Week, 13 Sep. 2022 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'abort.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Word History

Etymology

Verb

in part borrowed from Latin abortus, past participle of aborīrī "to pass away, be lost, (of a fetus) miscarry, be aborted, (of a woman) miscarry," from ab- ab- + orīrī "to rise, come into existence, be born"; in part borrowed from Late Latin abortīre and abortīrī "(of a woman) to miscarry," derivatives of Latin aborīrī — more at orient entry 2

Noun

noun derivative of abort entry 1

First Known Use

Verb

1540, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1

Noun

1944, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler

The first known use of abort was in 1540

See more words from the same year