Obs. [ad. L. abort-us an untimely birth, f. aborī-ri: see ABORT v.]
1. A miscarriage, an untimely birth: lit. and fig.
1621. Burton, 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.
1651. Reliq. Wotton., 241. Julia, a little before dying of an abort in childbed.
1656. J. 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.
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Morals, 140. False births, unkinde or strange aborts.
1671. Salmon, Syn. Medic., II. xlv. 306. Lest the Child, for want of Nutriment, prove an Abort.
