abort

/əˈbɔːt/
/əˈbɔɹt/
/əˈbɔɹt/

noun

  1. A miscarriage; an untimely birth; an abortion.

  2. The product of a miscarriage; an aborted offspring; an abortion.

  3. 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."

  4. The function used to abort a process.

  5. An event involving the abort of a process.

    "We've had three aborts over the last two days."

verb

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

  2. To cause a premature termination of (a fetus); to end a pregnancy before term.

  3. To end prematurely; to stop in the preliminary stages; to turn back.

  4. To stop or fail at something in the preliminary stages.

  5. 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. To cause an organism to develop minimally; to cause rudimentary development to happen; to prevent maturation.

  7. To abandon a mission at any point after the beginning of the mission and prior to its completion.

  8. To terminate a mission involving a missile or rocket; to destroy a missile or rocket prematurely.

  9. To terminate a process prior to completion.