Word: warp Part of Speech: noun Etymology: From Middle English warp, werp, from Old English wearp, warp (“a warp, threads stretched lengthwise in a loom, twig, osier”), from Proto-Germanic *warpą (“a warp”). Cognate with Middle Dutch warp, Middle Low German warp, German werfen, Danish and Swedish varp. Pronunciation: /ˈwɔːp/, /ˈwoːp/, /ˈwoɹp/, /ˈwɔɾp/ 1. The state, quality, or condition of being twisted, physically or mentally: Labels: uncountable Example: All frames found to suffer from warp should be broken up straight away before the printer is tempted during a rush to make use of them. Example: Rough lumber is rarely perfectly straight, and may suffer from warp, 2. The state, quality, or condition of being twisted, physically or mentally: Labels: uncountable Example: He believed that we were suffering from warp or bias, that a blind spot contorted our mental vision. Example: […] and may discover that the potency of this politician-father had so altered the freedom with which corrective authority could be imposed on his son that to an extraordinary extent the person as an adult continues to suffer from warp acquired at home as a child. 3. A distortion: Labels: countable Example: Wills, too, was struck down by a pole but was saved because a warp in the wood bent upwards, creating a pocket for his body. Example: In yet another ironic twist in a story richly endowed with such warps, the Tsar's telegram crossed one despatched in the other direction. 4. A distortion: Labels: countable Example: It is interesting to note that it has been suggested by Lugaro to partially extirpate the thyroid in cases of moral insanity; an excessive secretion of thyroid being regarded as the cause of excessive amativeness, thieving, and other mental warps […] 5. The threads that run lengthwise in a woven fabric; crossed by the woof or weft. Labels: countable, uncountable 6. The foundation, the basis, the undergirding. Labels: countable, figuratively, uncountable Example: The sense of sin (enforced by piacular rites) is as important to social integration as the committing of crimes (in due proportion) which alone can cause the mobilization of moral values that is the warp of society and of human conscience. Example: This stretch is typical of the Piedmont section, where the warp of the economic structure is agriculture and the woof industry. 7. A line or cable or rode as is used in warping (mooring or hauling) a ship, and sometimes for other purposes such as deploying a seine or creating drag. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: We finish’d the Raft that Night, and in the Morning sent Mr. Prat, our Chief Mate, and four Men in the Boat with a long Rope for a Warp, to fasten on the Land. Example: […] trailed one of my sea anchors or at least some warps in order to ease the ship […] 8. A theoretical construct that permits travel across a medium without passing through it normally, such as a teleporter, faster-than-light travel or time warp. Labels: countable, uncountable 9. A situation or place which is or seems to be from another era; a time warp. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: If Times Square nevertheless remained a metaphor for the city's changing dynamics, it was stuck in a warp of immobility, unable to push itself forward as it had in the early part of the twentieth century. Example: Evolutionary psychology often seems to be stuck in a warp on the grassy African plains, even though we know that early humans didn't stay on the Savannah but moved from around 2 million years ago out of Africa into quite different terrains. 10. The sediment which subsides from turbid water; the alluvial deposit of muddy water artificially introduced into low lands in order to enrich or fertilise them. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: The silt is brought down and the strong tide of the Humber brings it up in very large quantities, so that the river the whole way through nearly is exceedingly thick. Added to that I may say that we suffer from warp to a tremendous extent. 11. A throw or cast, as of fish (in which case it is used as a unit of measure: about four fish, though sometimes three or even two), oysters, etc. Labels: countable, dialectal, obsolete, uncountable Example: a warp of fish