Etymology Late Middle English, from Late Latin orphanus, from Ancient Greek ὀρφανός (orphanós, “without parents, fatherless”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃órbʰos. PIE word *h₃órbʰos Cognate with Sanskrit अर्भ (árbha), Latin orbus (“orphaned”), Old High German erbi, arbi (German Erbe (“heir”)), Old English ierfa (“heir”). More at erf.
1
A person, especially a minor, both or (rarely) one of whose parents have died.
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.1956, Delano Ames, chapter 9, in Crime out of Mind:
2
A person, especially a minor, whose parents have permanently abandoned them.
3
A young animal with no mother.
4
Figuratively Anything that is unsupported, as by its source, provider or caretaker, by reason of the supporter's demise or decision to abandon.
5
Media, Publishing, Typography A single line of type, beginning a paragraph, at the bottom of a column or page.
An orphan isn't harmful in a language that has garbage collection, such as Java. However, reducing the number of orphans can be expected to improve code performance.2003, David D. Riley, The Object of Data Abstraction and Structures Using Java, page 234:
Etymology Late Middle English, from Late Latin orphanus, from Ancient Greek ὀρφανός (orphanós, “without parents, fatherless”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃órbʰos. PIE word *h₃órbʰos Cognate with Sanskrit अर्भ (árbha), Latin orbus (“orphaned”), Old High German erbi, arbi (German Erbe (“heir”)), Old English ierfa (“heir”). More at erf.
1
Deprived of parents (also orphaned).
She is an orphan child.
2
Broadly, Figuratively Remaining after the removal of some form of support.
With its government funding curtailed, the gun registry became an orphan program.
Etymology Late Middle English, from Late Latin orphanus, from Ancient Greek ὀρφανός (orphanós, “without parents, fatherless”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃órbʰos. PIE word *h₃órbʰos Cognate with Sanskrit अर्भ (árbha), Latin orbus (“orphaned”), Old High German erbi, arbi (German Erbe (“heir”)), Old English ierfa (“heir”). More at erf.
1
To deprive of parents (used almost exclusively in the passive).
What do you do when you come across two orphaned polar bear cubs?
2
Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences To make unavailable, as by removing the last remaining pointer or reference to.
When you removed that image tag, you orphaned the resized icon.
Removing categories orphans pages from the main category tree.