Definition of "abort" in English

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.

verb

1. (intransitive, now rare outside medicine) To miscarry; to bring forth (non-living) offspring prematurely.

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.

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.