orphan

/'ɔ:fən/

Thân thiện

A young orphan feeds a stray kitten in the garden.

Definition

1. Noun:

   • A child whose parents are dead: A person, especially a young one, who has lost both parents through death.
   • A young animal that has lost its mother: An animal, typically young, whose mother has died or is absent.
   • Something that lacks support or care: A person or thing that is without protection, guidance, or a usual source of support.
   • A technical term in typesetting: The first line of a paragraph that appears alone at the bottom of a page or column, separated from the rest of the paragraph.

2. Verb:

   • To make (a child) an orphan: To deprive a child of its parents, typically through death.

Usage Examples

• Noun:

  • After the accident, the boy became an orphan and went to live with his aunt.
  • The zookeepers are caring for an orphan elephant calf.
  • The abandoned project was an orphan, with no department willing to fund it.
  • The editor fixed the orphan at the bottom of page 5.

• Verb:

  • The war orphaned thousands of children.
  • She was orphaned at a very young age.

Advanced Usage

• "Orphan drug": A pharmaceutical agent developed specifically to treat a rare medical condition, which might not be profitable to produce without special incentives.

  • The government offers tax benefits for companies that develop orphan drugs.

• "Orphan work": A copyrighted work for which the copyright holder cannot be contacted or identified.

  • Libraries often struggle with how to digitize orphan works.

Variants and Related Words

• Orphanage (n): A residential institution for the care and education of orphans.

  • She grew up in an orphanage.

• Orphaned (adj): Describing someone or something that has been made an orphan.

  • The orphaned children were placed in foster care.

• Orphanhood (n): The state of being an orphan.

  • His early orphanhood shaped his character.

Synonyms

• Noun: Ward (of the state), foundling (an abandoned child of unknown parents).
• Verb: Bereave (of parents), deprive (of parents).

Related Phrases

• "Orphan Annie": A reference to the comic strip character, often used to describe someone who appears poor, innocent, and parentless.

  • With her big eyes and old dress, she looked like a little Orphan Annie.

• "Orphan planet" (or rogue planet): A planetary-mass object that does not orbit a star and travels through space alone.

  • Scientists have discovered several orphan planets drifting in interstellar space.

Học thuật

Noun

1. a young animal without a mother
2. the first line of a paragraph that is set as the last line of a page or column
3. someone or something who lacks support or care or supervision
4. a child who has lost both parents

Verb

1. deprive of parents