Abort

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)

abort
    n 1: the act of terminating a project or procedure before it is
         completed; "I wasted a year of my life working on an
         abort"; "he sent a short message requesting an abort due to
         extreme winds in the area"
    v 1: terminate before completion; "abort the mission"; "abort
         the process running on my computer"
    2: cease development, die, and be aborted; "an aborting fetus"
    3: terminate a pregnancy by undergoing an abortion

from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

Abort \A*bort"\ ([.a]*b[^o]rt"), v. i. [L. abortare, fr.
   abortus, p. p. of aboriri; ab + oriri to rise, to be born.
   See {Orient}.]
   [1913 Webster]
   1. To miscarry; to bring forth young prematurely.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. (Biol.) To become checked in normal development, so as
      either to remain rudimentary or shrink away wholly; to
      become sterile.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. to stop, cease, or fail prior to normal completion.
      [PJC]

from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

Abort \A*bort"\ ([.a]*b[^o]rt"), v. t.
   to cause (an action or process) to stop at an early stage, or
   before normal completion; as, to abort a rocket flight.
   [PJC]

from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

Abort \A*bort"\, n. [L. abortus, fr. aboriri.]
   1. An untimely birth. [Obs.] --Sir H. Wotton.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. An aborted offspring. [Obs.] --Holland.
      [1913 Webster]

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)

abort

   <programming> To terminate a program or {process} abnormally
   and usually suddenly, with or without {diagnostic}
   information.  "My program aborted", "I aborted the
   transmission".  The noun form in computing is "abort", not
   "abortion", e.g. "We've had three aborts over the last two
   days".

   If a {Unix} {kernel} aborts it is known as a {panic}.

   (1997-01-07)

from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

38 Moby Thesaurus words for "abort":
      abandon, belay, cancel, cease, close, conclude, cut it out, desist,
      determine, discontinue, drop it, end, finish, finish up, give over,
      go amiss, go astray, go wrong, halt, have done with, hold,
      knock it off, lay off, leave off, miscarry, perorate, quit,
      refrain, relinquish, renounce, resolve, scrap, scratch, scrub,
      stay, stop, terminate, wind up

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