Etymology From English still + born. First attested in 1597.
1
Dead at birth.
Queen Anne, before Elizabeth, bore a still-born son.1768, Horace Walpole, Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of King Richard III:
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
Broadly, Figuratively 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.1859, Charles Reade, chapter 11, in Love Me Little, Love Me Long:
His lips framed themselves to whistle the first bars of a popular song, but the sound died stillborn.1915, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 18, in The Highgrader:
stillborn
noun
Etymology From English still + born. First attested in 1597.
1
A baby that is born dead.
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: