stillborn
adjective
- a being who died before or during birth
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈstɪlbɔː(ɹ)n/
adj
Etymology: From English still + born. First attested in 1597.
- 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?”
- 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.”
noun
Etymology: From English still + born. First attested in 1597.
- A baby that is born dead.
“About 35% of stillborns are discovered to have major structural anomalies by chromosomal studies and autopsy findings.”