orphan

Plural: orphans

Noun

• a child who has lost both parents
• someone or something who lacks support or care or supervision
• the first line of a paragraph that is set as the last line of a page or column
• a young animal without a mother
• A person, especially a minor, both or (rarely) one of whose parents have died.
• A person, especially a minor, whose parents have permanently abandoned them.
• A young animal with no mother.
• Anything that is unsupported, as by its source, provider or caretaker, by reason of the supporter's demise or decision to abandon.
• A single line of type, beginning a paragraph, at the bottom of a column or page.
• Any unreferenced object.

Verb

Verb Forms: orphaned, orphaning, orphans

• To deprive a child of one or both parents.
• deprive of parents
• To deprive of parents (used almost exclusively in the passive)
• To make unavailable, as by removing the last remaining pointer or reference to.

Adj

• Deprived of parents (also orphaned).
• Remaining after the removal of some form of support.

Examples

• Removing categories orphans pages from the main category tree.
• She is an orphan child.
• The player hoped to ORPHAN his opponent’s strategy by blocking all their good connections.
• What do you do when you come across two orphaned polar bear cubs?
• When you removed that image tag, you orphaned the resized icon.
• With its government funding curtailed, the gun registry became an orphan program.

Antonyms

widow

Related Words

orphan drug

Anagrams of orphan