orphan

noun

1. 1

   A person, especially a minor, both or (rarely) one of whose parents have died.

   Rudolf was the bold, bad Baron of traditional melodrama. Irene was young, as pretty as a picture, fresh from a music academy in England. He was the scion of an ancient noble family; she an orphan without money or friends.

2. 2

   A person, especially a minor, whose parents have permanently abandoned them.

3. 3

   A young animal with no mother.

4. 4

   figurativeAnything that is unsupported, as by its source, provider or caretaker, by reason of the supporter's demise or decision to abandon.

5. 5

   A single line of type, beginning a paragraph, at the bottom of a column or page.

6. 6

   Any unreferenced object.

   An orphan isn't harmful in a language that has garbage collection, such as Java. However, reducing the number of orphans can be expected to improve code performance.

adjective

1. 1

   Deprived of parents (also orphaned).

   She is an orphan child.

2. 2

   figurativeRemaining after the removal of some form of support.

   With its government funding curtailed, the gun registry became an orphan program.

verb

1. 1

   To deprive of parents (used almost exclusively in the passive).

   What do you do when you come across two orphaned polar bear cubs?

2. 2

   To make unavailable, as by removing the last remaining pointer or reference to.

   When you removed that image tag, you orphaned the resized icon.

   Removing categories orphans pages from the main category tree.

Forms

plural

orphans

past tense

orphaned

past participle

orphaned

present participle

orphaning

third person singular

orphans