abortive
adjective
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Definition of abortive
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Synonyms & Antonyms for abortive
Synonyms
barren, bootless, empty, fruitless, futile, ineffective, ineffectual, inefficacious, otiose, profitless, unavailing, unproductive, unprofitable, unsuccessful, useless, vain
Antonyms
deadly, effective, effectual, efficacious, efficient, fruitful, potent, productive, profitable, successful, virtuous
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Examples of abortive in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
In retirement, Iacocca joined with the late billionaire Kirk Kerkorian in an abortive effort to take over Chrysler, made an unlikely assortment of investments and went through a second divorce. — Donald Woutat, latimes.com, "Lee Iacocca, father of the Ford Mustang who later rescued Chrysler, dies at 94," 2 July 2019 Oh, also: the SEC has subpoenaed both Silver Lake and Goldman Sachs for materials on their Tesla encounter, since the two were involved in Musk’s abortive effort, according to The New York Times. — Elizabeth Lopatto, The Verge, "SpaceX gets into space tourism while the Department of Justice gets into Tesla," 21 Sep. 2018 The abortive coup Saturday in the Amhara region was led by a high-ranking military officer and others in the armed forces, said Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who addressed the nation on state TV at 2 a.m. while wearing fatigues. — oregonlive.com, "Ethiopia says military chief killed, regional coup failed," 23 June 2019 The abortive coup Saturday in the Amhara region was led by a high-ranking military officer and others in the armed forces, said Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who addressed the nation on state TV at 2 a.m. while wearing fatigues. — Elias Meseret, BostonGlobe.com, "Ethiopia says military chief killed, regional coup failed," 23 June 2019 Haunted by an abortive coup in 2016 (after which the government arrested some 60,000 people), the president has surrounded himself with yes-men and family members. — The Economist, "Turkey’s President Erdogan may face a mutiny in his own party," 6 June 2019 And before that, another abortive approach led Williams to derive a breakthrough proof in a related domain of computer science called circuit complexity. — Quanta Magazine, "A New Map Traces the Limits of Computation," 29 Sep. 2015 Even before its establishment in 1913, during earlier, abortive attempts to create a permanent U.S. central bank, sniping from the White House and Congress was frequent. — Spencer Jakab, WSJ, "Why Trump’s Fed Bashing Is Encouraging," 11 Oct. 2018 March 10 is the 60th anniversary of an abortive 1959 uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet, while anti-government riots occurred March 14, 2008, in the regional capital Lhasa. — Christopher Bodeen, The Seattle Times, "China closes Tibet to foreigners for sensitive anniversaries," 19 Feb. 2019These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'abortive.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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More Definitions for abortive
abortive
adjective
English Language Learners Definition of abortive
See the full definition for abortive in the English Language Learners Dictionary
abortive
adjective
\
Medical Definition of abortive
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