Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The quality or state of being, or of tending to become, abortive; a failure to reach perfection or maturity; want of success or accomplishment.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The quality of being abortive.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun countable The result or product of being
abortive .
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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In view of this endemic sectarianism, added to the intrinsic abortiveness of
Dictionary of the History of Ideas WALTER SIMON 1968
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To dispatch that particular subject as much more briefly; and besides, I have been able to hit upon no other method, which promised to unfold the real conditions of family prayer, and show the reasons of utter failure and abortiveness in it so distinctly and impressively.
Christian Nurture. 1802-1876 1876
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Charles VII., who was just arriving at the camp, seeing the abortiveness of the attempt, went back to Pont-de-l'Arehe.
A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, Volume 3 1830
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Smitten with Rousseau's conception of the perfectness of the savage state, and the essential abortiveness of all civilization, Mr. Fuseli looks at all our little attempts at improvement, with a spirit that borders perhaps too much upon contempt and indifference.
Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman Godwin, William, 1756-1836 1798
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Smitten with Rousseau's conception of the perfectness of the savage state, and the essential abortiveness of all civilization, Mr. Fuseli looks at all our little attempts at improvement, with a spirit that borders perhaps too much upon contempt and indifference.
Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman William Godwin 1796
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