stillborn

adj
/ˈstɪlbɔː(ɹ)n/

Etymology

From English still + born. First attested in 1597.

  1. derived from *beraną — “to bear, carry
  2. inherited from *buranaz
  3. inherited from *boran
  4. inherited from boren
  5. inherited from born
  6. compounded as stillborn — “still + born

Definitions

  1. Dead at birth.

    • Queen Anne, before Elizabeth, bore a still-born son.
    • 1978, Holy Bible (New International Version), Job 3:16, Or why was I not hidden in the ground like a stillborn child, like an infant who never saw the light of day?
  2. Ignored, without influence, or unsuccessful from the outset

    Ignored, without influence, or unsuccessful from the outset; abortive.

    • This, gentlemen, is a list of the joint-stock companies created last year. . . . Of these some were stillborn, but the majority hold the market.
    • His lips framed themselves to whistle the first bars of a popular song, but the sound died stillborn.
  3. A baby that is born dead.

    • About 35% of stillborns are discovered to have major structural anomalies by chromosomal studies and autopsy findings.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for stillborn. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA