warp
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /wɔːp/
ipa: /wɔɹp/
ipa: /woːp/
rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)p
Forms: form: warps
form: warping
form: warped
form: warped
Etymology: From Middle English werpen, weorpen, worpen, from Old English weorpan (“to throw”), from Proto-West Germanic *werpan, from Proto-Germanic *werpaną (“to throw, turn”), from Proto-Indo-European *werb- (“to bend, turn”).
Cognate with Scots warp (“to throw, warp”), North Frisian werpen (“to throw”), Dutch werpen (“to throw, cast”), German werfen (“to throw, cast”), Icelandic verpa (“to throw”).
Senses: examples: text: The moisture warped the board badly.
text: to warp space and time
text: The trauma had permanently warped her mind.
text: The planks looked warped.
ref: 1797–1798 (date written), [Samuel Taylor Coleridge], “The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere”, in Lyrical Ballads, with a Few Other Poems, London: […] J[ohn] & A[rthur] Arch, […], published 1798, →OCLC:
text: Walter warped his mouth at this / To something so mock solemn, that I laughed.
ref: 1847, Alfred Tennyson, “Prologue”, in The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC:
text: The preposterous altruism too! […] Resist not evil. It is an insane immolation of self—as bad intrinsically as fakirs stabbing themselves or anchorites warping their spines in caves scarcely large enough for a fair-sized dog.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XVI, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
glosses: To twist or become twisted, physically or mentally.
To twist or turn (something) out of shape; to deform.
examples: text: Over the years the post had warped and checked and needed to be replaced.
text: One of you will prove a shrunk panel, and, like green timber, warp.
ref: c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:
text: They clamp one piece of wood to the end of another, to keep it from casting, or warping.
ref: 1694, Joseph Moxon, Mechanick Exercises:
glosses: To twist or become twisted, physically or mentally.
To become twisted out of shape; to deform.
examples: text: This firſt avovv'd; nor Folly vvarp'd my Mind, / Nor the frail Texture of the Female Kind / Betray'd my Vertue: […]
ref: 1700, [John] Dryden, “Sigismonda and Guiscardo, from Boccace”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 138:
text: I have no private considerations to warp me in this controversy.
ref: 1714 April 16, Joseph Addison, The Reader:
text: We are divested of all those passions which cloud the intellects, and warp the understandings, of men.
ref: 1829, Robert Southey, Sir Thomas More; or, Colloquies on the Progress and Prospects of Society:
text: If it persists much longer, this era of high joblessness will likely change the life course and character of a generation of young adults […] Ultimately, it is likely to warp our politics, our culture, and the character of our society for years.
ref: 2010 March 1, Don Peck, “How a New Jobless Era Will Transform America”, in The Atlantic:
text: It gives a pair of drunken bums direction, purpose and thriving small businesses but it destroys their friendship and warps their morals in the process.
ref: 2012 June 3, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Mr. Plow” (season 4, episode 9; originally aired 11/19/1992)”, in The A.V. Club:
glosses: To twist or become twisted, physically or mentally.
To deflect or turn (something) away from a true, proper or moral course; to pervert; to bias.
examples: text: His perspective had warped after his extreme experiences.
text: There is our commission, / From which we would not have you warp.
ref: c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:
glosses: To twist or become twisted, physically or mentally.
To go astray or be deflected from a true, proper or moral course; to deviate.
examples: text: The usual method is to warp the yarn, either in whole or half hauls, […]
ref: 1830, William Burney, A New Universal Dictionary of the Marine:
text: The next part of the process previous to tarring, is that of warping the yarns, or stretching them all to one length.
ref: 1852, Thomas Antisell, Hand-book of the Useful Arts: Including Agriculture, page 541:
topics: arts
crafts
hobbies
lifestyle
nautical
ropemaking
transport
glosses: To run (yarn) off the reel into hauls to be tarred.
glosses: To arrange (strands of thread, etc) so that they run lengthwise in weaving.
examples: text: whiles lie doth he mischief warp
ref: 1628, Thomas Sternhold, The Whole Book of Psalms:
text: She acquainted the Greeks underhand with this treason, which was a warping against them.
ref: 1602, Plutarch, translated by Philemon Holland, Moralia, page 409:
glosses: To plot; to fabricate or weave (a plot or scheme).
examples: text: though thou the waters warp
ref: c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene vii]:
text: On came the sleet, and hail, and snow, in thorough good earnest; on came the bitter biting wind, which is not so unkind as man's ingratitude; on came the frost, which warps the waters, but whose bite is not so nigh as benefits forgot,
ref: 1860, Robert Barnabas Brough, The Welcome Guest, page 273:
text: Warp—contract and shrivel (here by freezing; in III, iii, 75, by drought). In the Thesaurus Linguarum of George Hicken, D.D., the great Anglo-Saxon scholar, 1642-1715, the Saxon proverb 'Winter shall warp water' is quoted, showing that the meaning of this word here is 'weave into a firm texture.' Propertius uses the same simile: 'Africus, in glaciem frigore nectit aquas.'—Elegies, IV, iii. (The south-west wind warps the waters into ice by its chilness.)
ref: 1876, Shakespeare's Comedy of As You Like it, page 134:
glosses: To change or fix (make fixed, for example by freezing).
examples: text: We had a dreary morning's work before us, for there was no sign of any wind, and the boats had to be got out and manned, and the ship warped three or four miles around the corner of the island.[…]
ref: 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:
text: At slack tide, the crew warped the ship into the lock that lowered the vessel down to river height,
ref: 2011, Derek Lundy, The Way of a Ship: A Square-Rigger Voyage in the Last Days:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: To move:
To move a vessel by hauling on a line or cable that is fastened to an anchor or pier; (especially) to move a sailing ship through a restricted place such as a harbour.
examples: text: Having all our boats out with anchors and warps in them, which were presently run out, the ship warped into safety, where we dropt anchor for the night.
ref: 1777, James Cook, A Voyage Towards the South Pole and Round the World:
text: A good anchorage was found at Tanna, and the ship warped close in.
ref: 2009, Arthur Kitson, The Life of Captain James Cook, page 148:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: To move:
To move or be moved by this method.
raw_tags: of a ship
examples: text: A pitchy cloud / Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
text: Thou know'st, with trumpet tongue, they'll speak, despite / Detracting foes, unnumbered as the tribes / Of horned locusts, warped on dusky winds, […]
ref: 1844, William Harper, Cain and Abel: a dramatic poem; and minor pieces, page 74:
text: Pink cloudlets sail across the azure sky; The bees warp lazily on laden wing; […]
ref: 1884, John Addington Symonds, Vagabunduli Libellus, page 148:
text: Many bees warped and spun about us, and some even alighted on Grandfather's bare head, or on his neck. He did not disturb them.
ref: 1941, Harper's Magazine, volume 184, page 421::
glosses: To move:
To fly with a bending or waving motion, like a flock of birds or insects.
examples: text: Then we warp a ball of atmosphere right out of the sky into the domes, and some fruit trees to go with them, and we also abduct some livestock.
ref: 2004, Travis S. Taylor, Warp Speed, →ISBN:
text: Valerie asked why they couldn't warp to the planet.
ref: 2012, Jonathan Henry, The Revelation of Earth: First Contact, page 188:
topics: literature
media
publishing
science-fiction
video-games
glosses: To move:
To travel or transport across a medium without passing through it normally, as by using a teleporter or time warp.
examples: text: They count a cow's warping her calf a month before her time not to be so bad as an ewe's losing her lamb. […] [A]n ewe that had warped her lamb very early might sometimes have another within the year[.]
ref: 1757, Edward Lisle, Observations in husbandry, volume 2, pages 113 and 200:
text: Some cows are perhaps by constitutional weakness, or bodily imperfection, more liable to warp than others; […]
ref: 1807, General View of the Agriculture of the County of Gloucester, page 297:
text: It was caused in the first instance by a single cow, which was purchased at a fair, and which cow warped, and it was only got rid of at last by changing the whole herd.
ref: 1846, The Gardeners' Chronicle, volume 6, page 346:
glosses: To bring forth (young) prematurely.
raw_tags: of an animal
examples: text: Large fields are surrounded by embankments, dykes are cut, and sluice hates placed; when warping is in progress the gates all along the dykes to the tidal river, miles away, are opened.
ref: 1901 February 23, Yorkshire Weekly Post, quoted in English Dialect Dictionary:
topics: agriculture
business
lifestyle
glosses: To fertilize (low-lying land) by letting the tide, a river, or other water in upon it to deposit silt and alluvial matter.
examples: text: They warped all his bowels about on the tide.
ref: 1822, James Hogg, Poetical Works, volume 2, page 144:
text: time and again / i write you of our love for Jarrell. / the wind warps me in your tree / Delmore […]
ref: 1969, Intro, issue 2, page 164:
synonyms: word: fling
word: hurl
word: bung
word: cast
word: chuck
word: chunk
word: cook
word: dash
word: dump
word: feck
word: fling
word: jerk
word: heave
word: hield
word: hoy
word: huck
word: hurl
word: hurtle
word: launch
word: lob
word: peck
word: peg
word: pick
word: pitch
word: precipitate
word: project
word: quoit
word: shy
word: slight
word: skew
word: sling
word: thrill
word: throw
word: toss
word: traject
word: warp
word: whang
word: whip
word: whop
word: wing
glosses: To throw.
Derived terms: word: mind-warping
word: warped