释义 |
▪ I. abort, v.|əˈbɔːt| [f. L. abort- ppl. stem of aborī-ri to miscarry, disappear, f. ab off, away + orī-ri to arise, appear, come into being. Cf. Fr. avorte-r:—late L. *abortā-re, f. abort-us.] 1. a. intr. To miscarry, to have a premature delivery of a child.
1580Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong., Avorter, to abort, or when a woman goeth not hir full time. 1655Lestrange Charles I, 104 This Spring the Queen..aborted of a son. 1859Todd Cycl. An. & Ph. V. 615/2 A woman who aborted at the sixth month. b. trans. fig. To bring to a premature or fruitless termination. spec. in Aeronautics. Also lit., to terminate (a pregnancy).
1614Reliq. Wotton. (1672) 431 It [the Parliament] is aborted before it was born. 1880Contemp. Rev. XXXVII. 248 Lord Brougham did write a novel, but it was rather aborted than produced. 1962J. Glenn in Into Orbit 41 A bright red light at the very top of this panel is labelled ‘Abort’... You could be aborted automatically..or by a command from the ground. 1963Amer. Speech XXXVIII. 118 We lost an engine, so we aborted the mission. 1966Listener 6 Oct. 503/2 In rats..after a female has successfully mated with a male, the presence of another male a little distance away immediately aborts the pregnancy. 1977Lancet 5 Feb. 271/1 Several parents who would have had their pregnancies aborted, had prenatal diagnosis not been available, have allowed them to continue to term. 1977E. J. Trimmer et al. Visual Dict. Sex (1978) xxii. 247 In 1938, a British gynecologist was tried for aborting the pregnancy in a girl of fourteen who had been raped. c. intr. use of prec. U.S.
1946Britannica Bk. of Year 832/1 Abort, to fail to complete a mission or flight; said of an aeroplane. 1963Amer. Speech XXXVIII. 118 A specified point on the runway..used as a decision point for aborting. If trouble develops on the take-off roll before go-no-go, it is possible to abort and stop the aircraft on the remaining runway. d. trans. To cause (a woman) to abort; to perform an abortion on. Also absol. and refl.
[1933G. R. Scott Mod. Birth Control Methods ix. 118 The pregnant uterus is not easily aborted by a sound or similar instrument.] 1934D. D. Bromley Birth Control xi. 143 Abortionists.., as a rule, avoid trouble by refusing to abort a patient who is more than two and a half months along. 1967Listener 30 Nov. 686/3 Wretched little dramas of scruffy girls in jeans being aborted after men with sideburns..had got them in the family way. 1969Daily Tel. 28 Apr. 14 National Health surgeons on the whole remain disinclined to abort frivolously. 1973Nation Rev. (Melbourne) 31 Aug. iii. 1450/3 This person has signed a statement to the effect that his girlfriend was aborted here. 1977Lancet 3 Sept. 496/1 Perhaps the most disturbing result was the response to the statement ‘A physician has the responsibility to inform the husband or parents of any female he aborts.’ 1980Daily Tel. 25 Jan. 15/6 We want them to come to the doctor first, not go off and damage themselves, abort themselves or see an illegal abortionist. e. trans. To prevent the further development of (a fœtus or embryo in the womb) by removing it or causing its expulsion; to remove in the course of an abortion.
1974Daily Tel. 7 Sept. 2/7 A woman carrying a test-tube baby would be monitored so carefully..that any abnormalities would be discovered and the foetus aborted. 1976Church Times 2 Jan. 14/5 A silent march of witness in memory of the 800,000 unborn children aborted under the 1967 Abortion Act was held. 1979Daily Tel. 28 Apr. 2 The baby was aborted at a Barnsley hospital..after it was discovered her 20-year-old mother had been infected with German measles. 1986Guardian 3 Nov. 17/1 They argued for some sex education in schools so that teenage girls could learn how to have babies rather than to be forced to abort them. 2. Biol. To become sterile or nugatory; to undergo arrestment of development, so as to remain in a merely rudimentary condition, or to shrink away entirely; said either of the development of an individual, or of a race of plants or animals.
1862Darwin Fertiliz. Orchids 70 If the discs had been small..we might have concluded that they had begun to abort. 1877Mivart Elem. Anat. iii. 112 They [the turbinal bones] may, on the contrary, abort altogether, as is the case in the probably smell-less Porpoises. ▪ II. abort, n.|əˈbɔːt| [ad. L. abort-us an untimely birth, f. aborī-ri: see abort v.] 1. A miscarriage, an untimely birth: lit. and fig. Obs.
1621Burton Anat. Mel. (1651) i. ii. iv. vi. 160 In Japonia 'tis a common thing to stifle their children if they be poor, or to make an abort. 1651Reliq. Wotton. 241 Julia, a little before dying of an abort in childbed. 1656J. Trapp Expos. 2 Tim. i. 15 (1868) 651/2 These stars fell from heaven, as fast as the fig-tree makes abort, with any never so light and gentle a wind. 2. The imperfect offspring of an untimely birth. Obs.
1603Holland Plutarch's Morals 140 False births, unkinde or strange aborts. 1671Salmon Syn. Medic. ii. xlv. 306 Lest the Child, for want of Nutriment, prove an Abort. 3. Aeronaut. An abortive flight by an aeroplane, etc.; an aeroplane, etc., that so fails. (See also quot. 1962.) U.S.
1958Aero-Space Terms, Abort 1. An instance of a rocket missile or vehicle failing to function effectively and not achieving the objective plotted for it. 2. A rocket missile or vehicle that so fails. 1960Times 18 Oct. 13/6 A thing which detects errors in the interiors of missiles is now known as ‘abort sensory equipment’. 1962Into Orbit Glossary 243 Abort, an escape; in spacecraft terms an emergency separation of the capsule from the booster—or even the emergency exit of the Astronaut from the capsule. 1963Amer. Speech XXXVIII. 118 The control room had to classify our flight as an air abort. |