Usage examples for abortive
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Since the purpose for which they were caparisoned has proved abortive, they remain so only from having been forgotten. – The Lone Ranche by Captain Mayne Reid
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Some bold coup d'etat might be in contemplation, and although the many and diverse interests in the country were probably sufficient to render any attempt abortive in itself, yet such an attempt might be the one thing needed to fan the smouldering ashes into flame, starting a conflagration which would burn throughout Europe. – Princess Maritza by Percy Brebner
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Or, again, are they, as others thought, the products of the germs of animals and of the seeds of plants which have lost their way, as it were, in the bowels of the earth, and have achieved only an imperfect and abortive development? – The Rise and Progress of Palaeontology Essay #2 from "Science and Hebrew Tradition" by Thomas Henry Huxley