Library / English Dictionary

WARP

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Yarn arranged lengthways on a loom and crossed by the woof

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("warp" is a kind of...):

thread; yarn (a fine cord of twisted fibers (of cotton or silk or wool or nylon etc.) used in sewing and weaving)

Holonyms ("warp" is a part of...):

weave (pattern of weaving or structure of a fabric)

Holonyms ("warp" is a substance of...):

cloth; fabric; material; textile (artifact made by weaving or felting or knitting or crocheting natural or synthetic fibers)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A moral or mental distortion

Synonyms:

warp; warping

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Hypernyms ("warp" is a kind of...):

deformation; distortion (a change for the worse)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A shape distorted by twisting or folding

Synonyms:

buckle; warp

Classified under:

Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes

Hypernyms ("warp" is a kind of...):

distorted shape; distortion (a shape resulting from distortion)

Derivation:

warp (bend out of shape, as under pressure or from heat)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A twist or aberration; especially a perverse or abnormal way of judging or acting

Synonyms:

deflection; warp

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("warp" is a kind of...):

aberrance; aberrancy; aberration; deviance (a state or condition markedly different from the norm)

Derivation:

warp (make false by mutilation or addition; as of a message or story)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Bend out of shape, as under pressure or from heat

Example:

The highway buckled during the heat wave

Synonyms:

buckle; heave; warp

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "warp" is one way to...):

change surface (undergo or cause to undergo a change in the surface)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "warp"):

lift (rise upward, as from pressure or moisture)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

warp (a shape distorted by twisting or folding)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make false by mutilation or addition; as of a message or story

Synonyms:

distort; falsify; garble; warp

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "warp" is one way to...):

belie; misrepresent (represent falsely)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "warp"):

mangle; murder; mutilate (alter so as to make unrecognizable)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

warp (a twist or aberration; especially a perverse or abnormal way of judging or acting)

warping (a moral or mental distortion)

Credits

 Context examples: 

I saw Mr. Rochester shudder: a singularly marked expression of disgust, horror, hatred, warped his countenance almost to distortion; but he only said—Come, be silent, Richard, and never mind her gibberish: don't repeat it.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

And you, in turn,—or so it seems to me,—leave out the biological factor, the very stuff out of which has been spun the fabric of all the arts, the warp and the woof of all human actions and achievements.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Age had warped and cracked the boards, so that when I had at last very stealthily crept my way as far as the sliding-panel, I found that I could, without any difficulty, see into the room.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I am now in a condition to show, by—HEEP'S—false books, and—HEEP'S—real memoranda, beginning with the partially destroyed pocket-book (which I was unable to comprehend, at the time of its accidental discovery by Mrs. Micawber, on our taking possession of our present abode, in the locker or bin devoted to the reception of the ashes calcined on our domestic hearth), that the weaknesses, the faults, the very virtues, the parental affections, and the sense of honour, of the unhappy Mr. W. have been for years acted on by, and warped to the base purposes of—HEEP.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

To accomplish the change was like a reflux of being, and this when the plasticity of youth was no longer his; when the fibre of him had become tough and knotty; when the warp and the woof of him had made of him an adamantine texture, harsh and unyielding; when the face of his spirit had become iron and all his instincts and axioms had crystallised into set rules, cautions, dislikes, and desires.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

The coordinates of 1,339 classical Cepheids marked on a 3D map created a twisted and warped galactic disk of our big home.

(Scientists Say Milky Way Is Warped & Twisted Not Flat, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

Thanks to Hubble's exquisite sharpness, the photo unveils the effect of space warping due to gravity.

(NASA’s Hubble Looks to the Final Frontier, NASA)

Simulations and movies like these really help us visualize what Einstein meant when he said that gravity warps the fabric of space and time,” explains Jeremy Schnittman, who generated these gorgeous images using custom software at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.###!!!###

(NASA Visualization Shows a Black Hole’s Warped World, NASA)

But if I had not taken things for granted, if I had examined everything with the care which I should have shown had we approached the case de novo and had no cut-and-dried story to warp my mind, should I not then have found something more definite to go upon? Of course I should.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The astronomers measured how the light emitted by oxygen and neon gas orbiting each of the quasars' black holes is warped by the gravity of a massive foreground galaxy, which acts as a magnifying lens.

(Cosmic Magnifying Glasses Find Dark Matter in Small Clumps, NASA)