aborted

abortive, aborted

The central meaning of abortive since the time of Shakespeare has been ‘coming to nought, fruitless, useless, unsuccessful’. It can be applied to attempts, efforts, missions, coups, and rebellions, negotations, proposals, etc., and to any action that proves to be unsuccessful, even the most trivial

• (An abortive attempt to do the Times crossword —A. N. Wilson, 1982).

Aborted is not, despite the protestations of the American writer William Safire, a better alternative, since it denotes actual failure whereas abortive can be used of failure that is merely imminent or potential.