stillborn
See also: still-born
English
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editFirst attested 1597, from English still + born
Pronunciation
edit- IPA(key): /ˈstɪlbɔː(ɹ)n/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Adjective
editstillborn (not comparable)
- Dead at birth.
- 1768, Horace Walpole, Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of King Richard III:
- 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?
- (figuratively, by extension) Ignored, without influence, or unsuccessful from the outset; abortive.
- Synonym: unfruitful
- 1859, Charles Reade, chapter 11, in Love Me Little, Love Me Long:
- This, gentlemen, is a list of the joint-stock companies created last year. . . . Of these some were stillborn, but the majority hold the market.
- 1915, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 18, in The Highgrader:
- His lips framed themselves to whistle the first bars of a popular song, but the sound died stillborn.
Translations
editdead at birth
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ignored, without influence, unsuccessful, abortive
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Noun
editstillborn (plural stillborns)
- A baby that is born dead.
- 2016, Alok Sharma, A Practical Guide to Third Trimester of Pregnancy & Puerperium:
- About 35% of stillborns are discovered to have major structural anomalies by chromosomal studies and autopsy findings.