abort

Meanings

Noun

• A miscarriage; an untimely birth; an abortion.
• The product of a miscarriage; an aborted offspring; an abortion.
• An early termination of a mission, action, or procedure in relation to missiles or spacecraft; the craft making such a mission.
• The function used to abort a process.
• An event in which a process is aborted.

Verb

• To miscarry; to bring forth (non-living) offspring prematurely.
• To cause a premature termination of (a fetus); to end a pregnancy before term.
• To end prematurely; to stop in the preliminary stages; to turn back.
• To stop or fail at something in the preliminary stages.
• To become checked in normal development, so as either to remain rudimentary or shrink away wholly; to cease organic growth before maturation; to become sterile.
• To cause an organism to develop minimally; to cause rudimentary development to happen; to prevent maturation.
• To abandon a mission at any point after the beginning of the mission and prior to its completion.
• To terminate a mission involving a missile or rocket; to destroy a missile or rocket prematurely.
• To terminate a process prior to completion.

Origin

• From Middle English, from Latin abortus, perfect active participle of aborior, formed from ab + orior. abortus.
• From Latin abortare, from abortus, from aboriri, from ab- + oriri.