noun

• (figuratively) Anything that is unsupported, as by its source, provider or caretaker, by reason of the supporter's demise or decision to abandon.
• (typography) A single line of type, beginning a paragraph, at the bottom of a column or page.
• (computing) Any unreferenced object.
  "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."

adj

• (by extension, figuratively) Remaining after the removal of some form of support.
  "With its government funding curtailed, the gun registry became an orphan program."

verb

• (transitive) To deprive of parents (used almost exclusively in the passive).
  "What do you do when you come across two orphaned polar bear cubs?"
• (transitive, computing) To make unavailable, as by removing the last remaining pointer or reference to.
  "When you removed that image tag, you orphaned the resized icon."