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orphan
(redirected from orphaning)

   Also found in: Medical, Legal, Financial, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.01 sec.
or·phan  (ôrfn)
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 without a mother.
3. One that lacks support, supervision, or care: A lack of corporate interest has made the subsidiary an orphan.
4. An orphan technology or product.
5.
a. A line of type beginning a new paragraph at the bottom of a column or page.
b. A short line of type at the bottom of a paragraph, column, or page; a widow.
adj.
1. Deprived of parents.
2. Intended for orphans: an orphan home.
3. Lacking support, supervision, or care.
4. Not developed or marketed, especially for being commercially unprofitable: "an aggregation of every orphan technology at the Pentagon, stuff that's been around for years that nobody would buy" Harper's.
5. Affecting so few people that the development of treatment is neglected or abandoned for being unprofitable: an orphan disease.
tr.v. or·phaned, or·phan·ing, or·phans
To deprive (a child or young animal) of a parent or parents.

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

orphan·hood n.

orphan
Noun
a child whose parents are dead
Verb
to cause (someone) to become an orphan: she was orphaned at 16 when her parents died in a car crash [Greek orphanos]
ThesaurusLegend:  Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
Noun1.orphanorphan - a child who has lost both parents
child, kid, minor, nipper, tiddler, youngster, tike, shaver, small fry, nestling, fry, tyke - a young person of either sex; "she writes books for children"; "they're just kids"; "`tiddler' is a British term for youngster"
2.orphan - someone or something who lacks support or care or supervision
individual, mortal, person, somebody, someone, soul - a human being; "there was too much for one person to do"
3.orphan - the first line of a paragraph that is set as the last line of a page or column
line - text consisting of a row of words written across a page or computer screen; "the letter consisted of three short lines"; "there are six lines in every stanza"
4.orphan - a young animal without a mother
young, offspring - any immature animal
Verb1.orphan - deprive of parents
deprive, divest, strip - take away possessions from someone; "The Nazis stripped the Jews of all their assets"
Translations
Spanish orphan [ˈɔːfn] nhuérfano/a
vt to be orphaned → quedar huérfano/a

French orphan [ˈɔːfn] norphelin(e)
vt to be orphaned → devenir orphelin

German orphan [ˈɔːfn] nWaise f, Waisenkind nt
vt to be orphaned → zur Waise werden

Italian orphan [ˈɔːfn] norfano/a
vt to be orphaned → diventare orfano

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