warp

noun

1. (uncountable)The state, quality, or condition of being twisted, physically or mentally:

   “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.”

   “Rough lumber is rarely perfectly straight, and may suffer from warp,”

   “The part is not fragile, does not need benching to remove "stair-stepping" on curved surfaces and does not need post curing. It does not suffer from warp, sag or curl.”

   “[…] and Senft found that the fibril angle in both the Pinus and Populus was high in juvenile wood, indicating that both are likely to exhibit warp in drying.”

2. (uncountable)The state, quality, or condition of being twisted, physically or mentally:

   “He believed that we were suffering from warp or bias, that a blind spot contorted our mental vision.”

   “[…] 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. (countable)A distortion:

   “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.”

   “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. (countable)A distortion:

   “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. (countable, uncountable)The threads that run lengthwise in a woven fabric; crossed by the woof or weft.
6. (countable, figuratively, uncountable)The foundation, the basis, the undergirding.

   “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.”

   “This stretch is typical of the Piedmont section, where the warp of the economic structure is agriculture and the woof industry.”

7. (countable, uncountable)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.

   “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.”

   “[…] trailed one of my sea anchors or at least some warps in order to ease the ship […]”

8. (countable, uncountable)A theoretical construct that permits travel across a medium without passing through it normally, such as a teleporter or time warp.
9. (countable, uncountable)A situation or place which is or seems to be from another era; a time warp.

   “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.”

   “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.”

   “To succeed routinely at mind-reading or telekinesis or love charms would result in no learning, no amusement, no spiritual growth (for a companion parable, check out Bill Murray's Groundhog Day). We would be stuck in a warp […]”

10. (countable, uncountable)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.

    “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. (countable, dialectal, obsolete, uncountable)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.

    “a warp of fish”

verb

1. (transitive)To twist or become twisted, physically or mentally.

   “The moisture warped the board badly.”

   “to warp space and time”

   “The trauma had permanently warped her mind.”

   “The planks looked warped.”

   “Walter warped his mouth at this / To something so mock solemn, that I laughed.”

2. (intransitive)To twist or become twisted, physically or mentally.

   “Over the years the post had warped and checked and needed to be replaced.”

   “One of you will prove a shrunk panel, and, like green timber, warp.”

   “They clamp one piece of wood to the end of another, to keep it from casting, or warping.”

3. (transitive)To twist or become twisted, physically or mentally.

   “This firſt avovv'd; nor Folly vvarp'd my Mind, / Nor the frail Texture of the Female Kind / Betray'd my Vertue: […]”

   “I have no private considerations to warp me in this controversy.”

   “We are divested of all those passions which cloud the intellects, and warp the understandings, of men.”

   “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.”

   “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.”

4. (intransitive)To twist or become twisted, physically or mentally.

   “His perspective had warped after his extreme experiences.”

   “There is our commission, / From which we would not have you warp.”

5. (ambitransitive, obsolete)To run (yarn) off the reel into hauls to be tarred.

   “The usual method is to warp the yarn, either in whole or half hauls, […]”

   “The next part of the process previous to tarring, is that of warping the yarns, or stretching them all to one length.”

6. (transitive)To arrange strands of thread lengthwise on a loom.

   “Warp the loom using your preferred method, following the draft in Figure 2 […]”

7. (ambitransitive, figuratively, obsolete, rare)To plot; to fabricate or weave (a plot or scheme).

   “whiles lie doth he mischief warp”

   “She acquainted the Greeks underhand with this treason, which was a warping against them.”

8. (obsolete, poetic, rare, transitive)To change or fix (make fixed, for example by freezing).

   “though thou the waters warp”

   “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,”

   “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.)”

9. (transitive)To move:

   “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.[…]”

   “At slack tide, the crew warped the ship into the lock that lowered the vessel down to river height,”

10. (intransitive)To move:

    “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.”

    “A good anchorage was found at Tanna, and the ship warped close in.”

11. (dated, intransitive, rare)To move:

    “A pitchy cloud / Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind.”

    “Thou know'st, with trumpet tongue, they'll speak, despite / Detracting foes, unnumbered as the tribes / Of horned locusts, warped on dusky winds, […]”

    “Pink cloudlets sail across the azure sky; The bees warp lazily on laden wing; […]”

    “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.”

12. (ambitransitive)To move:

    “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.”

    “Valerie asked why they couldn't warp to the planet.”

13. (ambitransitive, dialectal, obsolete)To bring forth (young) prematurely.

    “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[.]”

    “Some cows are perhaps by constitutional weakness, or bodily imperfection, more liable to warp than others; […]”

    “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.”

14. (ambitransitive)To fertilize (low-lying land) by letting the tide, a river, or other water in upon it to deposit silt and alluvial matter.

    “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. (obsolete, rare, transitive)To throw.

    “They warped all his bowels about on the tide.”

    “time and again / i write you of our love for Jarrell. / the wind warps me in your tree / Delmore […]”