Word: warp Part of Speech: verb 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”). Pronunciation: /ˈwɔːp/, /ˈwoːp/, /ˈwoɹp/, /ˈwɔɾp/ 1. To twist or become twisted, physically or mentally. Labels: transitive Example: The moisture warped the board badly. Example: to warp space and time 2. To twist or become twisted, physically or mentally. Labels: intransitive Example: Over the years the post had warped and checked and needed to be replaced. Example: One of you will prove a shrunk panel, and, like green timber, warp. 3. To twist or become twisted, physically or mentally. Labels: transitive Example: This firſt avovv'd; nor Folly vvarp'd my Mind, / Nor the frail Texture of the Female Kind / Betray'd my Vertue: […] Example: I have no private considerations to warp me in this controversy. 4. To twist or become twisted, physically or mentally. Labels: intransitive Example: His perspective had warped after his extreme experiences. Example: There is our commission, / From which we would not have you warp. 5. To run (yarn) off the reel into hauls to be tarred. Labels: ambitransitive, obsolete Example: The usual method is to warp the yarn, either in whole or half hauls, […] Example: The next part of the process previous to tarring, is that of warping the yarns, or stretching them all to one length. 6. To arrange strands of thread lengthwise on a loom. Labels: transitive Example: Warp the loom using your preferred method, following the draft in Figure 2 […] 7. To plot; to fabricate or weave (a plot or scheme). Labels: ambitransitive, figuratively, obsolete, rare Example: whiles lie doth he mischief warp Example: She acquainted the Greeks underhand with this treason, which was a warping against them. 8. To change or fix (make fixed, for example by freezing). Labels: obsolete, poetic, rare, transitive Example: though thou the waters warp Example: 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, 9. To move: Labels: transitive Example: 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.[…] Example: At slack tide, the crew warped the ship into the lock that lowered the vessel down to river height, 10. To move: Labels: intransitive Example: 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. Example: A good anchorage was found at Tanna, and the ship warped close in. 11. To move: Labels: dated, intransitive, rare Example: A pitchy cloud / Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind. Example: Thou know'st, with trumpet tongue, they'll speak, despite / Detracting foes, unnumbered as the tribes / Of horned locusts, warped on dusky winds, […] 12. To move: Labels: ambitransitive Example: 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. Example: Valerie asked why they couldn't warp to the planet. 13. To bring forth (young) prematurely. Labels: ambitransitive, dialectal, obsolete Example: 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[.] Example: Some cows are perhaps by constitutional weakness, or bodily imperfection, more liable to warp than others; […] 14. To fertilize (low-lying land) by letting the tide, a river, or other water in upon it to deposit silt and alluvial matter. Labels: ambitransitive Example: 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. 15. To throw. Labels: obsolete, rare, transitive Example: They warped all his bowels about on the tide. Example: time and again / i write you of our love for Jarrell. / the wind warps me in your tree / Delmore […]