abortive
adjective /əˈbɔː.tɪv/
/-ˈbɔːr.t̬ɪv/ formalDefinition
› describes an attempt or plan that you have to give up because it has failed: He made two abortive attempts on the French throne.Unsuccessful (people and things)
(Definition of abortive adjective from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus
© Cambridge University Press)
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You are looking at an entry to do with Unsuccessful (people and things), but you might be interested in these topics from the Doing and achieving topic area:
- Abstaining and refraining
- Acting and acts
- Avoiding action
- Becoming better
- Cancelling and interrupting
- Competing and contending (non-sporting)
- Coping and not coping
- Delaying and wasting time
- Describing the leading position
- Efficient and effective
- Expressions telling people to hurry up
- Failing and doing badly
- Failures
- Getting involved for one's own benefit or against others' will
- Hesitating
- Higher and lower points of achievement
- Hurrying and doing things quickly
- Making progress and advancing
- Making things better
- Performing a function
- Potential
- Reacting and responding
- Repeating an action
- Succeeding, achieving and fulfilling
- Success and achievements
- Successful (things or people)
- Surpassing in quality or number
- Taking part and getting involved
- Trying and making an effort
- Waiting
- Ways of achieving things
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Synonyms and related words:
- achiever noun
- be dead in the water idiom
- botched adjective
- counterproductive adjective
- crowning adjective
- flatline verb
- futile adjective
- go/get/head nowhere idiom
- inauspicious adjective
- lame duck noun (UNSUCCESSFUL)
- no-win adjective
- small-time adjective
- stillborn adjective
- struggling adjective
- the doldrums noun
- unavailing adjective
- unglued adjective
- unpromising adjective
- vainly adverb
- washed up adjective
Word of the Day
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to not be trusted or popular because people think you have done something bad
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