abortion

1. (medicine) The expulsion from the womb of a foetus or embryo before it is fully developed, with loss of the foetus.Examples: "Swines-bread, so used, doth not onely speed / A tardy labour; but (without great heed) / If over it a Child-great Woman stride, / Instant abortion often doth betide."; "At any time after impregnation, abortion may take place: it is one of the most common complaints of pregnancy, whence it is a matter of no small consequence that every practitioner should well understand it."Synonyms: miscarriage, misbirthcountableuncountable

2. (medicine) The expulsion from the womb of a foetus or embryo before it is fully developed, with loss of the foetus.Examples: "Mary decided to have an abortion because she was too young to raise a baby."; "It is impossible for an abortion clinic to have a waiting list of more than nine months."; "The story of Ms. He and her mother began in the early 1960s, shortly before the Cultural Revolution shook China. Her young parents, who worked in a pottery factory in Rongchang in present-day Chongqing municipality, conceived her while unmarried. “They were told by the factory, ‘Have an abortion or be fired’,” she said. They chose to keep her and were fired."Synonyms: aborticide, feticide, foeticide, terminationcountableuncountable

3. (now rare) An aborted foetus; an abortus.Examples: "‘It seems too hairy for an abortion, and too small for a mature birth.’"; "The Fascist poem, one may fear, will be a horrid little abortion such as one sees in a glass jar in the museum of some county town."archaiccountableuncountable

4. (figuratively) A misshapen person or thing; a monstrosity.Examples: "Insomuch that I do honestly believe, there can be no place in the world, where such intolerable abortions, begotten of the sculptor’s chisel, are to be found in such profusion, as in Rome."; "His voice was the most pitiable abortion of a voice I had ever heard."; "Dickey on his own manages to turn a simple bo diddley 1-2-3-4 into an absolute abortion of a song."countablefigurativelyuncountable

5. (figuratively) Failure or abandonment of a project, promise, goal etc.Examples: "The returning good sense of our country threatens abortion to their hopes, & they believe that any portion of power confided to me, will be exerted in opposition to their schemes."; "The transfer or loss of the project manager before the project is completed will result in lost continuity and delay or the abortion of the project and/or the report."; "[…] the abrupt abortion of the trip after eleven days."countablefigurativelyuncountable

6. (biology) Arrest of development of any organ, so that it remains an imperfect formation or is absorbed.countableuncountable