stillborn
See also: still-born
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
First attested 1597, from English still + born
Adjective
stillborn (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?
- 1768, Horace Walpole, "Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of King Richard III,"
- (figuratively, by extension) Ignored, without influence, or unsuccessful from the outset; abortive.
- Synonym: unfruitful
- 1859, Charles Reade, Love Me Little, Love Me Long, ch. 11,
- 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, The Highgrader, ch. 18,
- His lips framed themselves to whistle the first bars of a popular song, but the sound died stillborn.
Translations
dead 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
stillborn (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.
- 2016, Alok Sharma, A Practical Guide to Third Trimester of Pregnancy & Puerperium