adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
an abortive attempt formal (= unsuccessful )
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They made an abortive attempt to keep the company going.
an attempted/abortive/failed coup (= one that did not succeed )
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There was an attempted coup against Togo’s military dictator.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
attempt
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In 1909 an abortive attempt was made, by the present owner's grandfather, to produce hydroelectric power.
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An abortive attempt was made by Aprista newspapers to prove that the university had misappropriated public funds.
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He soon drifted away from his hometown to Rome, where he made an abortive attempt to complete law school.
coup
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Rumblings from recent abortive coup plots coupled with an erosion of army discipline have reportedly weakened Guei's grip on the military.
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The charges against Enrile arose from the abortive coup attempt of December 1989, the most serious military insurrection Aquino to date.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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Any abortive treatment must have a very rapid action because of the pain crescendo characteristic of these headaches.
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Brunel had also commissioned him to prepare an abortive scheme for him for a house at Watcombe in 1851.
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He then tried out these elements on an abortive design for Halifax Town Hall, before the competition officially had started.
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My conversation with the Ministry seemed to take ages, and, as I had already anticipated, it proved abortive .
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The attack against Beaumont-Hamel proved abortive , and a thrust made by the Third Army against Gommecourt failed utterly.