orphan
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Contents
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Late Latin orphanus, from Ancient Greek ὀρφανός (orphanós, “without parents, fatherless”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃órbʰos. Cognate with Sanskrit अर्भ (árbha), Latin orbus (“orphaned”), Old High German erbi, arbi (German Erbe (“heir”)), Old English ierfa (“heir”). More at erf.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
orphan (plural orphans)
- A person, especially a minor, both or (rarely) one of whose parents have died.
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1956, Delano Ames, chapter 9, in Crime out of Mind[1]:
- 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.
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- A person, especially a minor, whose parents have permanently abandoned them.
- A young animal with no mother.
- (figuratively) Anything that is unsupported, as by its source, provider or caretaker, by reason of the supporter's demise or decision to abandon.
- (typography) A single line of type, beginning a paragraph, at the bottom of a column or page.
- (computing) Any unreferenced object.
Derived terms[edit]
Terms derived from orphan
Translations[edit]
person whose (parent or) parents have died
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single line of type at the bottom of page
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Adjective[edit]
orphan (not comparable)
- Deprived of parents (also orphaned).
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She is an orphan child.
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- (by extension, figuratively) Remaining after the removal of some form of support.
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With its government funding curtailed, the gun registry became an orphan program.
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Related terms[edit]
Verb[edit]
orphan (third-person singular simple present orphans, present participle orphaning, simple past and past participle orphaned)
- (transitive) To deprive of parents (used almost exclusively in the passive)
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What do you do when you come across two orphaned polar bear cubs?
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- (transitive, computing) To make unavailable, as by removing the last remaining pointer or reference to.
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When you removed that image tag, you orphaned the resized icon.
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Removing categories orphans pages from the main category tree.
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Conjugation[edit]
Conjugation of orphan
| infinitive | (to) orphan | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| present tense | past tense | |||
| 1st person singular | orphan | orphaned | ||
| 2nd person singular | orphan, orphanest1 |
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| 3rd person singular | orphans, orphaneth1 |
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| plural | orphan | |||
| subjunctive | orphan | |||
| imperative | orphan | — | ||
| participles | orphaning | orphaned | ||
| 1) Archaic or obsolete. | ||||
References[edit]
- "orphan" at OneLook Dictionary Search.
Categories:
- English terms derived from the PIE root *h₃erbʰ-
- English terms derived from Late Latin
- English terms derived from Ancient Greek
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Typography
- en:Computing
- English adjectives
- English uncomparable adjectives
- English terms with usage examples
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English verb inflection-table templates
