Orphan

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɔː(r)fÉ™n

Origin

From Late Latin orphanus, from Ancient Greek ὀρφανός ("without parents, fatherless"), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃órbʰos. Cognate with Sanskrit अर्भ, Latin orbus ("orphaned"), Old High German erbi, arbi (German Erbe ("heir")), Old English ierfa ("heir"). More at erf.

Full definition of orphan

Noun

1. A person, especially a minor, both or (rarely) one of whose parents have died.
• 1956, w, Crime out of Mind Chapter 9, Rudolf was the bold, bad Baron of traditional melodrama. Irene was young, as pretty as a picture, fresh from a music academy in England. He was the scion of an ancient noble family; she an orphan without money or friends.
2. A young animal with no mother.
3. (figuratively) Anything that is unsupported, as by its source, provider or caretaker, by reason of the supporter's demise or decision to abandon.
4. (typography) A single line of type, beginning a paragraph, at the bottom of a column or page.
5. (computing) Any unreferenced object.

Derived terms

Adjective

1. Deprived of parents (also orphaned).She is an orphan child.
2. (by extension, figuratively) Remaining after the removal of some form of support.With its government funding curtailed, the gun registry became an orphan program.

Related terms

• orphan drug

Verb

1. (transitive) To deprive of parents (used almost exclusively in the passive)What do you do when you come across two orphaned polar bear cubs?
2. (transitive, computing) To make unavailable, as by unlinking the last remaining pointer to.When you removed that image tag, you orphaned the resized icon.Removing categories orphans pages from the main category tree.