abort

verb

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\ ə-ˈbȯrt

aborted; aborting; aborts

Definition of abort

(Entry 1 of 2)

intransitive verb

1 : to bring forth stillborn, nonviable, or premature offspring

2 : to become checked in development so as to degenerate or remain rudimentary

3 : to terminate a procedure prematurely the pilot decided to abort due to mechanical difficulties

transitive verb

1a : to induce the abortion of or give birth to prematurely

b : to terminate the pregnancy of before term

2a : to terminate prematurely : cancel abort a project abort a spaceflight

b : to stop in the early stages abort a disease

abort

noun

Definition of abort (Entry 2 of 2)

: the premature termination of a flight (as of an aircraft or spacecraft), a mission, or an action or procedure relating to a flight a launch abort

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Examples of abort in a Sentence

Verb They decided to abort the pregnancy. abort the launch of a rocket I suggest that you abort the project. The mission had to be aborted. When problems occurred during the launch, it was necessary to abort.

Recent Examples on the Web: Verb The ship had departed San Francisco, but aborted the voyage when several aboard started reporting coronavirus symptoms. — Chris Woodyard, USA TODAY, "Grand Princess cruise passengers, cooped up for 14 days, start leaving quarantine," 23 Mar. 2020 The Mexican defender had just been cut by Spanish club Getafe scarcely one month after signing a two-year contract, seemingly aborting his lifelong ambition of playing in Europe. — Nick Eilerson, SFChronicle.com, "Earthquakes’ Oswaldo Alanís, once stranded overseas, finds his soccer home in San Jose," 6 Mar. 2020 Bryant’s widow, Vanessa, filed a wrongful death lawsuit Monday, alleging that Zobayan was careless and negligent by flying in cloudy conditions and should have aborted the flight. — Washington Post, "Report: Los Angeles deputies shared Kobe Bryant crash photos," 28 Feb. 2020 Hern’s data on women who aborted because of fetal abnormalities showed more women terminated at between 24 and 25 weeks’ gestation than at any other time in the last two trimesters. — Anna Staver, The Denver Post, "Why a NY woman came to Colorado for a 32-week abortion," 13 Oct. 2019 The war aborted development of the WNF 342, but in the following 15 years Fairey engineers would ultimately bring together the threads of Brennan's, Cierva's, and Doblhoff's work. — Eric Tegler, Ars Technica, "The Fairey Rotodyne, the vertical takeoff and landing airliner time forgot," 16 Feb. 2020 What became clear last year, as companies like Uber and Lyft went public, and WeWork aborted, was that public markets largely weren’t buying the stories these companies and their private investors told. — Alison Griswold, Quartz, "When did selling mattresses become a tech business?," 9 Feb. 2020 And a Taliban offensive nearly aborted my passage over the snowy Hindu Kush in Afghanistan. — Paul Salopek, National Geographic, "Is the world becoming more violent?," 10 Jan. 2020 President Trump abruptly aborted those talks last month. — New York Times, "U.S. Is Quietly Reducing Its Troop Force in Afghanistan," 21 Oct. 2019 Recent Examples on the Web: Noun SpaceX’s next launch is set to come as soon as Jan. 11, when it is scheduled to again test the emergency abort system of its Dragon spacecraft — this time in flight. — Washington Post, "What 2020 could bring in spaceflight," 7 Jan. 2020 According to Koenigsmann, the explosion occurred during a test of the Crew Dragon’s in-flight abort system, which is used to jettison the capsule from the rocket if something goes wrong during launch. — Daniel Oberhaus, WIRED, "A Leaky Component Caused the SpaceX Crew Dragon Explosion," 15 July 2019 The launch abort process is not a fun one for astronauts. — Daniel Oberhaus, Wired, "SpaceX Attempts Its Last Big Test Before Human Spaceflight," 17 Jan. 2020 Eight SuperDraco thrusters immediately pressurized and ignited as the Falcon 9 rocket's first stage engines were commanded to shut down as part of the abort sequence. — Eric Berger, Ars Technica, "Rocket Report: Starlink flies, OneWeb has next mega-constellation launch," 31 Jan. 2020 The reusable rocket booster, which has already flown to orbit three times, will be destroyed by the force involved with its abort maneuver at several times the speed of sound. — Tim Fernholz, Quartz, "This is the final obstacle before SpaceX can fly astronauts to orbit," 17 Jan. 2020 No one knows the effect that the Horowitz report, following the Mueller-investigation dud, is having on the credibility of the mainstream media — so far, the great force multiplier of the abort-Trump Left. — Victor Davis Hanson, National Review, "Impeachment Fallouts," 31 Dec. 2019 The Starliner launch trajectory is intended to ease the stress on the spacecraft — and, eventually, crews — in the event of a high-altitude launch abort. — William Harwood, CBS News, "Boeing Starliner glitch rules out space station rendezvous; early landing ordered," 21 Dec. 2019 The capsule blasted off from the facility’s Launch Complex 32 at 9:15 EST (7:15 local time) with four launch abort engines with 190,000 pounds of thrust firing the capsule about 1 mile into the sky. — Richard Tribou, orlandosentinel.com, "Boeing Starliner has pad abort test, loses one parachute," 1 Nov. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'abort.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.