orphan
Americannoun
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a child who has lost both parents through death, or, less commonly, one parent.
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a young animal that has been deserted by or has lost its mother.
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a person or thing that is without protective affiliation, sponsorship, etc..
The committee is an orphan of the previous administration.
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Printing.
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(especially in word processing) the first line of a paragraph when it appears alone at the bottom of a page.
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adjective
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bereft of parents.
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of or for orphans.
an orphan home.
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not authorized, supported, or funded; not part of a system; isolated; abandoned.
an orphan research project.
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lacking a commercial sponsor, an employer, etc..
orphan workers.
verb (used with object)
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to deprive of parents or a parent through death.
He was orphaned at the age of four.
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Informal. to deprive of commercial sponsorship, an employer, etc..
The recession has orphaned many experienced workers.
noun
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a child, one or (more commonly) both of whose parents are dead
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( as modifier )
an orphan child
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printing the first line of a paragraph separated from the rest of the paragraph by occurring at the foot of a page
verb
Other Word Forms
- half-orphan noun
- orphanhood noun
- unorphaned adjective
Etymology
Origin of orphan
1425–75; late Middle English (noun) < Late Latin orphanus destitute, without parents < Greek orphanós bereaved; akin to Latin orbus bereaved
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Opened in 1873, the privately operated detention facility housed petty delinquents and orphans, said Marc Schindler, a professor at Georgetown who leads the project.
From Barron's
Mr. and Mrs. Fox had cared for the young man, who had been orphaned as a teenager.
From Literature
Later, alone and faced with the choice of a losing battle against seven brigands or abandoning a group of frightened orphans to their fate, Brienne decides that she has “no chance, and no choice.”
From Salon
Initially, Dunk doesn’t know him to be anything other than an orphan in need of a purpose.
From Salon
He has no siblings, no schoolmates and, after the death of the only other boy within walking distance, no friends—but he has Flag, an orphaned fawn.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
