as in unsuccessful
producing no results
an abortive attempt to recover the sunken pirate ship
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Recent Examples of abortive
Garbowit recalls that there were only around sixteen members of Congress lined up behind Thanedor’s abortive resolution—so the fact that Green’s follow-up motion garnered seventy-nine supporters in the caucus is a sign of progress.
—
Chris Lehmann, Harpers Magazine, 20 Aug. 2025
On the one hand, as Tevye is fond of saying, the story unfolds in a hardscrabble shtetl in the Ukrainian plains in the months leading up to the Russian Empire’s abortive 1905 revolution.
—David Lyman, The Enquirer, 25 July 2025
Brat Summer, last year’s abortive attempt to turn the screechy Charli XCX album of that name into a culture-spanning event, has given way to a season without name or form.
—Armin Rosen, The Washington Examiner, 25 July 2025
Nove dissected key episodes in Soviet economic history, from the New Economic Policy of the 1920s and farm collectivization in the 1930s to the heavy industry drive and abortive economic reforms under Nikita Khrushchev, Leonid Brezhnev, and other Soviet leaders.
—Barry Eichengreen, Foreign Affairs, 6 Sep. 2022
See All Example Sentences for abortive
Recent Examples of Synonyms for abortive
Adjective
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But her appeal was unsuccessful.—
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Industry lobbying unsuccessful to date Some advocates for the restaurant industry have been lobbying to change the way service fees are treated.—
Adjective
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But the rally felt less threatening than futile.—
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And this is asking that question, how are these people finding meaning and purpose in their lives that feel so oppressive and futile?—
Cite this Entry
“Abortive.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/abortive. Accessed 12 Jan. 2026.
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