From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishabortivea‧bor‧tive /əˈbɔːtɪv $ əˈbɔːr-/ adjective SUCCESSFULan abortive action is not successful an abortive military coupabortive attempt/effort an abortive attempt to reform local government
Examples from the Corpus
abortive• My conversation with the Ministry seemed to take ages, and, as I had already anticipated, it proved abortive.• The attack against Beaumont-Hamel proved abortive, and a thrust made by the Third Army against Gommecourt failed utterly.• He then tried out these elements on an abortive design for Halifax Town Hall, before the competition officially had started.• Brunel had also commissioned him to prepare an abortive scheme for him for a house at Watcombe in 1851.• Any abortive treatment must have a very rapid action because of the pain crescendo characteristic of these headaches.abortive ... coup• The charges against Enrile arose from the abortive coup attempt of December 1989, the most serious military insurrection Aquino to date.• Rumblings from recent abortive coup plots coupled with an erosion of army discipline have reportedly weakened Guei's grip on the military. 