English▸ verb [with object]
1 carry out or undergo the abortion of (a fetus):
the decision to abort the fetus
[no object] many doctors assume that women who undergo testing would choose to abort.
▪ [no object] (of a pregnant woman or female animal) have a miscarriage:
an organism that infects sheep and can cause pregnant ewes to abort.
▪ [no object] Biology (of an embryonic organ or organism) remain undeveloped; fail to mature.
▸ noun mainly technical an act of aborting a flight, space mission, or other enterprise:
an abort because of bad weather.
▪ an aborted enterprise:
I've wasted almost a year on an abort.
– ORIGIN mid 16th century: from Latin abort- ‘miscarried’, from aboriri, from ab- ‘away, from’ + oriri ‘be born’.