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An abortive action is one that starts, or is meant to happen, but does not succeed. An abortive attempt, abortive coup, or abortive meeting is a try that fails or dies early. The word is a little formal. In this use it does not talk about pregnancy — even though it sits in the same family as abort and abortion, and English first used it, centuries ago, for things that caused a birth to fail. Today, when people say an abortive plan, they mean the plan never really arrived. You will meet it in news and history more than in casual chat.
失敗的、沒成功的；中途夭折的（指行動、計畫）
組成From Latin abortivus, from aborior (“to miscarry, to disappear”), from ab- (“off, amiss”) + orior (“to be born, to arise”). English first used it for things that stop a birth; later it spread to any plan that dies before it is born.
原始詞典資料12 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
abortiveadj/əˈbɔɹ.tɪv/
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obsoleteProduced by abortion; born prematurely and therefore unnatural.
- an abortive child
- Thou elvish-marked, abortive, rooting hog!
- 2
Coming to nothing; failing in its effect. .
- an abortive attempt
- […] and with utter loss of being / Threatens him, plung'd in that abortive gulf.
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biologynatural-sciencesImperfectly formed or developed; rudimentary; sterile.
- an abortive organ
- an abortive stamen
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raremedicinepharmacologysciencesCausing abortion; abortifacient.
- abortive medicines
- Each country may have a different prevalence of infectious abortive agents. The most common agents of abortion in cattle are Brucella spp., Campylobacter spp., Chlamydiaceae, Coxiella burnetii, Leptospira spp., […]
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medicinesciencesCutting short; acting to halt or slow the progress (of a disease).
- abortive treatment of typhoid fever
- Even with prophylaxis, children often experience episodic breakthrough headaches that require abortive treatment. […] Abortive therapies in the ED include dopamine antagonists and anti-inflammatory agents.
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medicinesciencesHaving a short and mild progression, without pronounced symptoms.
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Made from the skin of a still-born animal.
- abortive vellum
abortivenoun/əˈbɔɹ.tɪv/
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obsoleteSomeone or something born or brought forth prematurely; an abortion.
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obsoleteA fruitless effort.
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obsoleteA medicine that causes abortion, an abortifacient.
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obsoleteA medicine or treatment acting to halt or slow the progress of a disease.
- Naphthalin was praised by Rosbach as an abortive in typhoid fever; Kraemer in 1886, Wilcox in 1887, Sehwald in 1889 and Wolff of Philadelphia in 1891 confirmed Rosbach's observations.
abortiveverb/əˈbɔɹ.tɪv/
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obsoleteTo cause an abortion; to render without fruit.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。