abort (abort)

verb

• 1carry out or undergo the abortion of (a fetus): Louisiana allows women to abort an embryo up to 12 weeks old [no object]: the right to abort must remain a key element of a woman’s ‘reproductive rights’
• [no object] (of a pregnant woman or female animal) have a miscarriage, with loss of the fetus: 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.

• 2bring to a premature end because of a problem or fault: the flight crew aborted the take-off

noun

• 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