orphan

n. a child whose parents have both died.

n. a person, typically a minor, whose parents are deceased.

“The young boy became an orphan after his parents died in a car accident.”

“The charity provides essential support and education for orphans who have lost their families to the ongoing conflict in the region.”

n. the first line of a new paragraph that appears alone at the bottom of a page.

n. a single line of type at the beginning of a paragraph that is isolated at the bottom of a printed column or page.

“The editor asked me to fix the orphan at the bottom of page five.”

“Professional typesetting software includes automated features to prevent orphans and widows from disrupting the visual flow of the text.”

Technical

n. a piece of data or a computer process that has no connection to a main program or user.

n. an object, file, or process that remains in a system after its parent process has terminated or its reference has been deleted.

“The system administrator had to clear out several orphan files to save space.”

“Orphan processes can consume significant system resources if the operating system fails to terminate them after the main application crashes.”

Technical

v. to cause someone to become an orphan.

v. to deprive a child of their parents, typically through death.

“The war orphaned thousands of children in just a few months.”

“The sudden epidemic orphaned many infants, placing an immense strain on the local community's ability to provide foster care.”

adj. describing something that has been left alone or has no support.

adj. deprived of parents or, figuratively, left without a source of support or a provider.

“The orphan technology was no longer supported by the original company.”

“The project became an orphan initiative after the primary sponsor withdrew funding during the second quarter.”

Formal