PARENTLESS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does parentless mean? 

• PARENTLESS (adjective)
  The adjective PARENTLESS has 1 sense:

1. having no parent or parents or not cared for by parent surrogates

  Familiarity information: PARENTLESS used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PARENTLESS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Having no parent or parents or not cared for by parent surrogates

Synonyms:

parentless; unparented

Similar:

orphaned (deprived of parents by death or desertion)

fatherless (having no living father)

motherless (having no living or known mother)

 Context examples 

I could not remember him; but I knew that he was my own uncle—my mother's brother—that he had taken me when a parentless infant to his house; and that in his last moments he had required a promise of Mrs. Reed that she would rear and maintain me as one of her own children.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

No: Adele is not answerable for either her mother's faults or yours: I have a regard for her; and now that I know she is, in a sense, parentless—forsaken by her mother and disowned by you, sir—I shall cling closer to her than before.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)