Definition of "abortive"

abortive

/əˈbɔɹ.tɪv/

adjective
comparative more abortive, superlative most abortive
1. (obsolete) Produced by abortion; born prematurely and therefore unnatural.
  Quotations
  Thou elvish-marked, abortive, rooting hog!
  c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene iii]
2. Coming to nothing; failing in its effect.
  Quotations
  […] and with utter loss of being / Threatens him, plung'd in that abortive gulf.
  1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, published 1799
  The king in vain excused his hasty retreats and abortive enterprises
  1838, William H. Prescott, History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella
  He made a salutation, or, to speak nearer the truth, an ill-defined, abortive attempt at curtsy.
  1851 April 9, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields
3. (biology) Imperfectly formed or developed; rudimentary; sterile.
4. (medicine, pharmacology, rare) Causing abortion; abortifacient.
  Quotations
  abortive medicines
  1809, Bartholomew Parr, Medical Dictionary
  Each country may have a different prevalence of infectious abortive agents. The most common agents of abortion in cattle are Brucella spp., Campylobacter spp., Chlamydiaceae, Coxiella burnetii, Leptospira spp., […]
  2018 May, Carla Sebastiania, Ludovica Curcioa, Marcella Ciulloa, Deborah Crucianib, Silvia Crottib, Cristina Pescab, Martina Torricellia, Martina Sebastianellia, Andrea Felicic, Massimo Biagetti, “A multi-screening Fast qPCR approach to the identification of abortive agents in ruminants”, in Journal of Microbiological Methods, volume 148, page 12
5. (medicine) Cutting short; acting to halt or slow the progress (of a disease).
  Quotations
  Even with prophylaxis, children often experience episodic breakthrough headaches that require abortive treatment. […] Abortive therapies in the ED include dopamine antagonists and anti-inflammatory agents.
  2016 December, David C. Sheridan, Garth D. Meckler, “Inpatient Pediatric Migraine Treatment: Does Choice of Abortive Therapy Affect Length of Stay?”, in The Journal of Pediatrics, volume 179, page 211
6. (medicine, of a disease) Having a short and mild progression, without pronounced symptoms.
7. Made from the skin of a still-born animal.
noun
plural abortives
1. (obsolete) Someone or something born or brought forth prematurely; an abortion.
2. (obsolete) A fruitless effort.
3. (obsolete) A medicine that causes abortion, an abortifacient.
4. (obsolete) A medicine or treatment acting to halt or slow the progress of a disease.
  Quotations
  Naphthalin was praised by Rosbach as an abortive in typhoid fever; Kraemer in 1886, Wilcox in 1887, Sehwald in 1889 and Wolff of Philadelphia in 1891 confirmed Rosbach's observations.
  1897 August 7, E. Viko, “On the Treatment of Typhoid Fever”, in The Journal of the American Medical Association, volume 29, number 6, Chicago, Ill., page 274
verb
third-person singular simple present abortives, present participle abortiving, simple past and past participle abortived
1. (transitive, obsolete) To cause an abortion; to render without fruit.

Definition of "abortive"

abortive

adjective

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noun

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verb