orphan

  1. Noun.  A person, especially a minor, both or (rarely) one of whose parents have died.
  2. Noun.  A young animal with no mother.
  3. Noun.  (figuratively) Anything that is unsupported, as by its source, provider or caretaker, by reason of the supporter's demise or decision to abandon.
  4. Noun.  (typography) A single line of type, beginning a paragraph, at the bottom of a column or page.
  5. Noun.  (computing) Any unreferenced abstract object.
  6. Adjective.  Deprived of parents (also (term, orphaned) ).
  7. Adjective.  (by extension, figuratively) Remaining after the removal of some form of support.
  8. Verb.  (transitive) To deprive of parents (''used almost exclusively in the passive'').
  9. Verb.  (transitive) (computing) To make unavailable, as by unlinking the last remaining pointer to.

This is an unmodified, but possibly outdated, definition from Wiktionary and used here under the Creative Commons license. Wiktionary is a great resource. If you like it too, please donate to Wikimedia.

This entry was last updated on RefTopia from its source on 3/20/2012.