abort

Etymology 1

From Middle English, from Latin abortus, perfect active participle of aborior (“miscarry”), formed from ab + orior (“come into being”). Doublet of abortus.

noun

1. (military, aeronautics) An early termination of a mission, action, or procedure in relation to missiles or spacecraft; the craft making such a mission.
   We've had aborts on three of our last seven launches.
2. (computing) The function used to abort a process.
3. (computing) An event in which a process is aborted.
   We've had three aborts over the last two days.
4. (now rare) The product of a miscarriage; an aborted offspring; an abortion.
5. (obsolete) A miscarriage; an untimely birth; an abortion.

Etymology 2

From Latin abortare, from abortus, from aboriri (“miscarry”), from ab- (“not”) + oriri (“come into being, arise, appear”).

verb

1. (intransitive, now rare outside medicine) To miscarry; to bring forth (non-living) offspring prematurely.
   Women have aborted, men have committed suicide, and both men and women have been thrown into convulsions during the fearful agony of renal colic. 1785, Henry Morris, Surgical Diseases of the Kidney, page 458
   In the study group ll patients aborted spontaneously between the 17th and 20th gestational week and 8 patients aborted after the 21st week. 1983, M. D. Bennett, Chromosomes Today: Volume 8 Proceedings of the Eighth International Chromosome Conference, page 346
2. (transitive, intransitive) To cause a premature termination of (a fetus); to end a pregnancy before term.
3. (transitive) To end prematurely; to stop in the preliminary stages; to turn back.
4. (intransitive) To stop or fail at something in the preliminary stages.
5. (intransitive, biology) To become checked in normal development, so as either to remain rudimentary or shrink away wholly; to cease organic growth before maturation; to become sterile.
6. (transitive, biology) To cause an organism to develop minimally; to cause rudimentary development to happen; to prevent maturation.
7. (intransitive, military) To abandon a mission at any point after the beginning of the mission and prior to its completion.
   First he aborts the take-off and now we have a runway incursion! 2022, Michael & Stefan Strasser, Chicken Wings (comic)
8. (transitive, aeronautics) To terminate a mission involving a missile or rocket; to destroy a missile or rocket prematurely.
9. (transitive, computing) To terminate a process prior to completion.