Definition of "orphan"

orphan

/ˈɔːfən/

noun
plural orphans
1. A person, especially a minor, both or (rarely) one of whose parents have died.
  Quotations
  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. (typography) A single line of type, beginning a paragraph, at the bottom of a column or page.
6. (computing) Any unreferenced object.
  Quotations
  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
adjective
not comparable
1. Deprived of parents (also orphaned).
2. (by extension, figuratively) Remaining after the removal of some form of support.
verb
third-person singular simple present orphans, present participle orphaning, simple past and past participle orphaned
1. (transitive) To deprive of parents (used almost exclusively in the passive)
2. (transitive, computing) To make unavailable, as by removing the last remaining pointer or reference to.