WARP, n. Waurp. [See the Verb.]

1. In manufactures, the threads which are extended length-wise in the loom, and crossed by the woof.
2. In a ship, a rope employed in drawing, towing or removing a ship or boat; a towing line. – Mar. Dict.
3. In agriculture, a slimy substance deposited on land by marine tides, by which a rich alluvial soil is formed. [Local.] – Cyc.
4. In cows, a premature casting of the young. [See the verb.] [Local.]

1. To turn, twist or be twisted out of a straight direction; as, a board warps in seasoning, or in the heat of the sun, by shrinking. They clamp one piece of wood to the end of another, to keep it from casting or warping. – Moxon.
2. To turn or incline from a straight, true or proper course; to deviate. There's our commission, / From which we would not have you warp. – Shak. Methinks / My favor here begins to warp. – Shak.
3. To fly with a bending or waving motion; to turn and wave, like a flock of birds or insects. The following use of warp is inimitably beautiful. As when the potent rod / Of Amram's son, in Egypt's evil day, / Wav'd round the coast, up call'd a pitchy cloud / Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind. – Milton.
4. To slink; to cast the young prematurely; as cows. In an inclosure near a dog-kennel, eight heifers out of twenty warped. [Local.] – Cyc.

1. To turn or twist out of shape, or out of a straight direction, by contraction. The heat of the sun warps boards and timber.
2. To turn aside from the true direction; to cause to bend or incline; to pervert. This first avow'd, nor folly warp'd my mind. – Dryden. I have no private considerations to warp me in this controversy. – Addison. Zeal, to a degree of warmth able to warp the sacred rule of God's word. – Locke.
3. In seamen's language, to tow or move with a line or warp, attached to buoys, to anchors, or to other ships, &c. by which means a ship is drawn, usually in a bending course or with various turns.
4. In rural economy, to cast the young prematurely. [Lord.] – Cyc.
5. In agriculture, to inundate, as land, with sea water; or to let in the tide, for the purpose of fertilizing the ground by a deposit of warp or slimy substance. Warp here is the throw, or that which is cast by the water. [Local in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, Eng.] – Cyc.
6. In rope-making, to run the yarn off the winches into hauls to be tarred. To warp water, in Shakspeare, is forced and unusual; indeed it is not English.

1. To throw; hence, to send forth, or throw out, as words; to utter.
   
   
   [Obs.] Piers Plowman.
2. To turn, twist, or be twisted out of shape] esp., to be twisted or bent out of a flat plane; as, a board warps in seasoning or shrinking.
   
   

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

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

3. The threads which are extended lengthwise in the loom, and crossed by the woof.
4. To twist the end surfaces of (an aërocurve in an aëroplane) in order to restore or maintain equilibrium.
5. To turn or twist out of shape; esp., to twist or bend out of a flat plane by contraction or otherwise.
   
   

   The planks looked warped. Coleridge.

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

6. to turn or incline from a straight, true, or proper course; to deviate; to swerve.
   
   

   There is our commission,
   From which we would not have you warp. Shak.

7. A rope used in hauling or moving a vessel, usually with one end attached to an anchor, a post, or other fixed object; a towing line; a warping hawser.
8. To turn aside from the true direction; to cause to bend or incline; to pervert.
   
   

   This first avowed, nor folly warped my mind. Dryden.

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

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

9. To fly with a bending or waving motion; to turn and wave, like a flock of birds or insects.
   
   

   A pitchy cloud
   Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind. Milton.

10. A slimy substance deposited on land by tides, etc., by which a rich alluvial soil is formed.
    
    
    Lyell.
11. To weave; to fabricate.
    
    
    [R. *** Poetic.] Nares.

    While doth he mischief warp. Sternhold.

12. To cast the young prematurely; to slink; -- said of cattle, sheep, etc.
    
    
    [Prov. Eng.]
13. A premature casting of young; -- said of cattle, sheep, etc.
    
    
    [Prov. Eng.]
14. To tow or move, as a vessel, with a line, or warp, attached to a buoy, anchor, or other fixed object.
15. To wind yarn off bobbins for forming the warp of a web; to wind a warp on a warp beam.
16. Four; esp., four herrings; a cast. See Cast, n., 17.
    
    
    [Prov. Eng.] Wright.
17. To cast prematurely, as young] -- said of cattle, sheep, etc.
    
    
    [Prov. Eng.]
18. The state of being warped or twisted; as, the warp of a board.
    
    

    Warp beam, the roller on which the warp is wound in a loom. -- Warp fabric, fabric produced by warp knitting. -- Warp frame, or Warp-net frame, a machine for making warp lace having a number of needles and employing a thread for each needle. -- Warp knitting, a kind of knitting in which a number of threads are interchained each with one or more contiguous threads on either side; -- also called warp weaving. -- Warp lace, or Warp net, lace having a warp crossed by weft threads.

19. To let the tide or other water in upon (lowlying land), for the purpose of fertilization, by a deposit of warp, or slimy substance.
    
    
    [Prov. Eng.]
20. To run off the reel into hauls to be tarred, as yarns.
21. To arrange (yarns) on a warp beam.
    
    

    Warped surface (Geom.), a surface generated by a straight line moving so that no two of its consecutive positions shall be in the same plane. Davies *** Peck.