orphaned
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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.
[Middle English, from Late Latin orphanus, from Greek orphanos, orphaned; see orbh- in Indo-European roots.]
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.
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Adj. | 1. | orphaned - deprived of parents by death or desertion parentless, unparented - having no parent or parents or not cared for by parent surrogates |
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