|
| or·phan [ áwrfən ] |
noun (plural or·phans) |
|
| Definition: |
| |
1. child without parents: a child whose parents are both dead or who has been abandoned by his or her parents, especially a child not adopted by another family
|
2. animal without mother: a young animal whose mother is dead or has abandoned it
|
3. printing stranded first line: an opening line of a paragraph that is also the last line on a page, cut off from the rest of the paragraph by the page break.
See also widown (sense 3)
|
transitive verb (past and past participle or·phaned, present participle or·phan·ing, 3rd person present singular or·phans) |
|
| Definition: |
| |
deprive somebody of parents: to make somebody an orphan
  a young boy orphaned by the war
|
adjective U.S. |
|
| Definition: |
| |
1. medicine affecting very few people: describes a rare medical condition that affects only a small number of people and for which it is not commercially viable to develop drugs or therapies
|
2. business not commercially viable: describes a product that is not developed or marketed, often because of its perceived limited commercial potential
orphan technologies
|
| [14th century. Via late Latin< Greek orphanos "orphaned"] |
|
| or·phan·hood noun |
|
Hotmail
Messenger
My MSN
MSN Directory
