Orphan

8 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  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 of the
        Union, having jurisdiction over the estates and persons of
        orphans or other wards. --Bouvier.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Orphan \Or"phan\, a.
     Bereaved of parents, or (sometimes) of one parent.
     [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  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]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  orphan
       adj : deprived of parents by death or desertion [syn: {orphaned}]
       n 1: a child who has lost both parents
       2: someone or something who lacks support or care or
          supervision
       3: the first line of a paragraph that is set as the last line
          of a page or column
       4: a young animal without a mother
       v : deprive of parents

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  39 Moby Thesaurus words for "orphan":
     abandoned, alone, bereave, cast-off, castaway, castoff, derelict,
     discard, disregarded, dogie, flotsam, flotsam and jetsam, forsaken,
     foundling, heir, ignored, jetsam, junk, lagan, leave, leave behind,
     lost, neglected, orphaned, parentless, refuse, reject, relict,
     rubbish, slighted, solitary, successor, survivor, trash, waif,
     waifs and strays, wastrel, widow, widower
  
  

From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:

  orphan n. [Unix] A process whose parent has died; one inherited by
     `init(1)'. Compare {zombie}.
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  ORPHAN. A minor or infant who has lost both of his or her parents. Sometimes 
  the term is applied to such a person who has lost only one of his or her 
  parents. 3 Mer. 48; 2 Sim. & Stu. 93; Lo & Man. Inst. B. 1, t. 2, c. 1. See 
  Hazzard's Register of Pennsylvania, vol. 14, pages 188, 1 89, for a 
  correspondence between the Hon. Joseph Hopkinson and ex-president J. Q. 
  Adams as to the meaning of the word Orphan, and Rob. 247. 
  
  

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  ORPHAN, n.  A living person whom death has deprived of the power of
  filial ingratitude -- a privation appealing with a particular
  eloquence to all that is sympathetic in human nature.  When young the
  orphan is commonly sent to an asylum, where by careful cultivation of
  its rudimentary sense of locality it is taught to know its place.  It
  is then instructed in the arts of dependence and servitude and
  eventually turned loose to prey upon the world as a bootblack or
  scullery maid.