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Abortive   /əbˈɔrtɪv/   Listen
adjective
Abortive  adj.  
1.
Produced by abortion.as, an abortive child. (R.)
2.
Made from the skin of a still-born animal; as, abortive vellum. (Obs.)
3.
Rendering fruitless or ineffectual. (Obs.) "Plunged in that abortive gulf."
4.
Coming to naught; failing in its effect; miscarrying; fruitless; unsuccessful; as, an abortive attempt. "An abortive enterprise."
5.
(Biol.) Imperfectly formed or developed; rudimentary; sterile; as, an abortive organ, stamen, ovule, etc.
6.
(Med.)
(a)
Causing abortion; as, abortive medicines.
(b)
Cutting short the period of an illness; as, abortive treatment of typhoid fever.


noun
Abortive  n.  
1.
That which is born or brought forth prematurely; an abortion. (Obs.)
2.
A fruitless effort or issue. (Obs.)
3.
(Med.) A medicine to which is attributed the property of causing abortion; also called an abortifacient.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Abortive" Quotes from Famous Books



... see, Deceived thyself, instead of me; For how can heavenly wisdom prove An instrument to earthly love? Know'st thou not yet, that men commence Thy votaries for want of sense? Nor shall Vanessa be the theme To manage thy abortive scheme: She'll prove the greatest of thy foes; And yet I scorn to interpose, But, using neither skill nor force, Leave all things to their natural course. The goddess thus pronounced her doom: When, lo! Vanessa in her bloom Advanced, like Atalanta's ...
— Poems (Volume II.) • Jonathan Swift
... distance—for how should a true image of him pass from town to town, by forest and mountain, throughout all that vast empire? The Master's life alone made clear to me what I had failed to gather from his followers. Just as their delirious dancings and shrieks and spasms were abortive attempts to produce his prayer-ecstasy, so in all things did they but caricature him. But now that he is dead, and these extravagances are no longer to be checked by his living example, so monstrous are the deeds ...
— Dreamers of the Ghetto • I. Zangwill
... is at hand, And to our presence leads Evander. All Thy dark complottings, and thy treach'rous arts, Have prov'd abortive. ...
— The Grecian Daughter • Arthur Murphy
... the special situation of the peasants seems to have led to similar conditions. We know a charming region in Southwest Germany, where, in the garden of every peasant, there stands the so-called "Sevenbaum," whose properties are applied to abortive purposes. In another district of the same country the regular two-child system prevails among the peasants: they do not wish to divide the places. Moreover, striking is the measure in which literature, that treats with and recommends the means of "facultative ...
— Woman under socialism • August Bebel
... their own miserable homes, destitute of their well-beloved daughters, the fathers cursing the days and the hours wherein they were married, and the mothers howling and crying that it was not their fortune to have brought forth abortive issues when they happened to be delivered of such unfortunate girls, and in this pitiful plight spend at best the remainder of their time with tears and weeping for those their children, of and from whom they expected, (and, with good ...
— Gargantua and Pantagruel, Complete. • Francois Rabelais


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