orphan

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   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
   noun

   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.

3. 3
   adj

   Deprived of parents (also orphaned).

   She is an orphan child.

4. 4
   adj

   Remaining after the removal of some form of support.

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

5. 5
   verb

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

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

6. 6
   verb

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

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

7. 7
   noun

   a young animal without a mother

8. 8
   noun

   the first line of a paragraph that is set as the last line of a page or column

Etymology

Late Middle English, from Late Latin orphanus, from Ancient Greek ὀρφανός (orphanós, “without parents, fatherless”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃órbʰos. PIE word *h₃órbʰos Cognate with Sanskrit अर्भ (árbha), Latin orbus (“orphaned”), Old High German erbi, arbi (German Erbe (“heir”)), Old English ierfa (“heir”). More at erf.