Definitions
orphan Tweet Definition of orphan Like Definition of orphan on Facebook
noun 
  1. A person, especially a minor, both or (rarely) one of whose parents have died.
  2. A child without living parents.
  3. A young animal with no mother.
  4. (typography) A single line of type, beginning a paragraph, at the bottom of a column or page.
  5. (computing) Any unreferenced abstract object.
Translations: 
  • Dutch: wees
  • French: orphelin
  • German: Waise , Waisenkind
  • Italian: orfano
  • Spanish: huérfano
verb 
  1. To deprive of parents (used almost exclusively in the passive)
What do you do when you come across two orphaned polar bear cubs?
  1. (computing) To dereference or unlink the last remaining pointer to any object.
When you removed that image tag, you orphaned the resized icon.
Removing categories orphans pages from the main category tree.
adjective Also orphaned
  1. Deprived of parents.
She is an child.
  1. Intended for orphans.
She made a generous contribution to the fund.
  1. (context, sometimes figurative) Of, pertaining to, or resembling the nature of an orphan.
With its government funding curtailed, the gun registry became an program.
Etymology: From Ancient Greek (polytonic, ) (orfanos) "without parents, fatherless".


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