orphanhood

or·phan

 (ôr′fən)

n.

1.

a. A child whose parents are dead.

b. A child who has been deprived of parental care and has not been adopted.

2. A young animal that has been prematurely separated from its parents or its mother.

3. One that lacks support, supervision, or care: A lack of corporate interest has made the subsidiary an orphan.

4. A technology or product that has not been developed or marketed, especially on account of being commercially unprofitable.

5. Printing A very short line of type at the bottom of a paragraph, column, or page.

adj.

1. Deprived of parents.

2. Intended for orphans: an orphan home.

3. Lacking support, supervision, or care.

4. Being a technology or product that is an orphan.

tr.v. or·phaned, or·phan·ing, or·phans

To deprive (a child or young animal) of a parent or parents.

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[Middle English, from Late Latin orphanus, from Greek orphanos, orphaned; see orbh- in Indo-European roots.]

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or′phan·hood′ n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

orphanhood

(ˈɔːfənˌhʊd) or

orphanism

n

the state of being an orphan

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

orphanhood - the condition of being a child without living parents; "his early orphanage shaped his character as an adult" orphanage condition - a mode of being or form of existence of a person or thing; "the human condition"

Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.