orphaned

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.

Thesaurus

Adj.

1.

orphaned - deprived of parents by death or desertion parentless, unparented - having no parent or parents or not cared for by parent surrogates