orphan

orphan
—orphanhood, n.
/awr"feuhn/, n.
1. a child who has lost both parents through death, or, less commonly, one parent.
2. a young animal that has been deserted by or has lost its mother.
3. a person or thing that is without protective affiliation, sponsorship, etc.: The committee is an orphan of the previous administration.
4. Print.
a. (esp. in word processing) the first line of a paragraph when it appears alone at the bottom of a page.
b. widow (def. 3b).
adj.
5. bereft of parents.
6. of or for orphans: an orphan home.
7. not authorized, supported, or funded; not part of a system; isolated; abandoned: an orphan research project.
8. lacking a commercial sponsor, an employer, etc.: orphan workers.
v.t.
9. to deprive of parents or a parent through death: He was orphaned at the age of four.
10. Informal. to deprive of commercial sponsorship, an employer, etc.: The recession has orphaned many experienced workers.
[1425-75; late ME (n.) < LL orphanus destitute, without parents < Gk orphanós bereaved; akin to L orbus bereaved]

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Universalium. 2010.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • orphan — or·phan n: a child deprived by death of one or usu. both parents; broadly: a child without a parent or guardian Merriam Webster’s Dictionary of Law. Merriam Webster. 1996. orphan …   Law dictionary

  • orphan — [ôr′fən] n. [LL(Ec) orphanus < Gr orphanos < IE base * orbho , orphan > L orbus, bereft, Ger erbe, inheritance, arbeit, work, Czech robotnik, serf] a child whose father and mother are dead: sometimes applied to a child who has lost only… …   English World dictionary

  • Orphan — Or phan, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Orphaned}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Orphaning}.] To cause to become an orphan; to deprive of parents. Young. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • orphan — ► NOUN ▪ a child whose parents are dead. ► VERB (usu. be orphaned) ▪ make an orphan. ORIGIN from Greek orphanos bereaved …   English terms dictionary

  • Orphan — Or phan, a. Bereaved of parents, or (sometimes) of one parent. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Orphan — Or phan, n. [L. orphanus, Gr. ?, akin to L. orbus. Cf. {Orb} a blank window.] A child bereaved of both father and mother; sometimes, also, a child who has but one parent living. [1913 Webster] {Orphans court} (Law), a court in some of the States… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Orphan —   [engl.], Schusterjunge …   Universal-Lexikon

  • orphan — [n] child without parents foundling, ragamuffin*, stray, waif; concept 414 …   New thesaurus

  • Orphan — For other uses, see Orphan (disambiguation). Orphans by Thomas Kennington An orphan (from the Greek ὀρφανός[1]) is a child permanently bereaved of or abandoned by his or her parents …   Wikipedia

  • Orphan — Filmdaten Deutscher Titel Orphan – Das Waisenkind Originaltitel Orphan …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • orphan — {{11}}orphan (n.) c.1300, from L.L. orphanus parentless child (Cf. O.Fr. orfeno, It. orfano), from Gk. orphanos orphaned, lit. deprived, from orphos bereft, from PIE *orbho bereft of father, also deprived of free status, from root *orbh to change …   Etymology dictionary

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