orphan (redirected from orphans)

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.

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

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orphan·hood n.

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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]

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	orphan - 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
Verb	1.	orphan - deprive of parents deprive, divest, strip - take away possessions from someone; "The Nazis stripped the Jews of all their assets"

Translations

orphan [ˈɔːfn] n → huérfano/a

vt to be orphaned → quedar huérfano/a

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orphan [ˈɔːfn] n → orphelin(e)

vt to be orphaned → devenir orphelin

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orphan [ˈɔːfn] n → Waise f, Waisenkind nt

vt to be orphaned → zur Waise werden

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orphan [ˈɔːfn] n → orfano/a

vt to be orphaned → diventare orfano