stillborn

See also: still-born

English

Alternative forms

• still-born

Etymology

First attested 1597, from English still +‎ born

Adjective

stillborn (not comparable)

1. 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?

2. (figuratively, by extension) Ignored, without influence, or unsuccessful from the outset; abortive.
   • 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.

Synonyms

• deadborn
• unfruitful

Translations

dead at birth

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Bulgarian: мъртвороден (mǎrtvoroden)
• Catalan: nascut mort m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 死胎的 (zh) (sǐtāi de), 死產的／死产的 (zh), 死产的 (zh) (sǐchǎn de)

• Czech: mrtvorozený m
• Dutch: doodgeboren (nl)
• Esperanto: mortnaskita
• Finnish: kuolleena syntynyt
• French: mort-né (fr) m
• German: totgeboren (de)
• Greek: θνησιγενής (el) (thnisigenís), νεκρογέννητος (el) m (nekrogénnitos)
• Hungarian: halva született
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Icelandic: andvanafæddur m
• Japanese: 死産の (ja) (しざんの, shizan no)
• Norman: mort-né
• Norwegian: dødfødt
• Persian: please add this translation if you can
• Portuguese: natimorto m
• Russian: мертворождённый (ru) (mertvoroždjónnyj)
• Scots: kebbit (of a lamb)
• Slovene: mrtvorojen m
• Spanish: nacido muerto, mortinato, natimorto m
• Swedish: dödfödd (sv) c
• Tagalog: lungal
• Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can

ignored, without influence, unsuccessful, abortive

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Dutch: doodgeboren (nl)
• Finnish: epäonnistunut (fi)
• Greek: θνησιγενής (el) (thnisigenís)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Norwegian: dødfødt
• Persian: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: please add this translation if you can
• Slovene: mrtvorojen m
• Swedish: dödfödd (sv) c
• Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can

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

• French: ^{(please verify)} mort-né (fr) m, ^{(please verify)} morte-née f
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} nato morto (it) m, ^{(please verify)} nata morta f
• Latin: ^{(please verify)} natus mortuus m, ^{(please verify)} nata mortua f, ^{(please verify)} abortivus m, ^{(please verify)} abortiva f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Serbo-Croatian: ^{(please verify)} mrtvorođen, ^{(please verify)} mrtvorođenče (sh)
• Slovene: ^{(please verify)} mrtvorojen
• Spanish: ^{(please verify)} nato muerto m, ^{(please verify)} nata muerta f

Noun

stillborn (plural stillborns)

1. A baby that is born dead.