Abo'rtment. n.s. [from abort.] The thing brought forth out of time; an untimely birth.
I shall not then doubt the happy issue of my undertakings in this design, whereby concealed treasures, which now seem utterly lost to mankind, shall be confined to so universal a piety, and brought into use by the industry of converted penitents, whose wretched carcases the impartial laws have, or shall, dedicate, as untimely feasts, to the worms of the earth, in whose womb those deserted mineral riches must ever lie buried as lost abortments, unless those be made the active midwives to deliver them. Bacon's Physical Remains.