From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishstillbornstill‧born /ˈstɪlbɔːn, ˌstɪlˈbɔːn $ -ɔːrn/ adjective 1 MBBABY/HAVE A BABYborn dead a stillborn baby2 FINISH/COME TO AN END written completely unsuccessful from the beginning and not developing at all a stillborn romance
Examples from the Corpus
stillborn• Sadly, the baby was stillborn.• I was not up to sharing life with a man preoccupied, behind whose dead eyes I could detect hope stillborn.• They had one son, who was stillborn.• A neighbor, W. H. Tonn, had several cattle die or give birth to stillborn calves after the explosion.• Its stomach gaped, and it lay like a woman with a stillborn child beside it.• Libby had still not recovered from the shock of giving birth to a stillborn child.• All anencephalus children are either miscarried, die stillborn, or die within a few weeks of life.• Many Down's babies are miscarried, stillborn or live only a few days.• Some may find him placing far too much emphasis on the impact of his alcoholic parents and stillborn twin brother, Jesse.Origin stillborn (1500-1600) → STILL2 “dead” ((16-17 centuries)) + born 