abortion

noun8

1. •
   the ending of a baby's life inside the mother, before it has grown enough to be born
2. •
   A spontaneous abortion; a miscarriage.

   • 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. — 1605
3. •
   An induced abortion.

   • Mary decided to have an abortion because she was too young to raise a baby.
4. •
   (figurative) Failure or abandonment of a project, promise, goal etc.

   • 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. — 1800
5. •
   (figurative) A misshapen person or thing; a monstrosity.

   • 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. — 1846
6. •
   Arrest of development of any organ, so that it remains an imperfect formation or is absorbed.
7. •
   The cessation of an illness or disease at a very early stage.
8. •
   (no longer used) An aborted foetus; an abortus.

   • ‘It seems too hairy for an abortion, and too small for a mature birth.’ — 1791