WARP, noun Waurp. [See the Verb.]

1. In manufactures, the threads, which are extended lengthwise 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.

3. In agriculture, a slimy substance deposited on land by marine tides, by which a rich alluvial soil is formed. [Local.]

4. In cows, a miscarriage. [See the Verb.] [Local.]

WARP, verb intransitive [G., to cast or throw, to whelp.]

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.

2. To turn or incline from a straight, true or proper course; to deviate.

Theres our commission, from which we would not have you warp

Methinks my favor here begins to warp

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 Amrams son, in Egypts evil day, wavd round the coast, up called a pitchy cloud of locusts, warping on the eastern wind--

4. To slink; to cast the young prematurely; as cows.

In an enclosure near a dog-kennel, eight heifers out of twenty warped. [Local.]

WARP, verb transitive

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 avowd, nor folly warpd my mind.

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

--Zeal, to a degree of warmth able to warp the sacred rule of Gods word.

3. In seamens language, to two or move with a line or warp attached to buoys, to anchors or to other ships, etc. 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. [Local.]

5. In agriculture, to inundate, as land, with sea water; or to let in the tide, forth 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.

6. In rope-making, to run the yarn off the winches into hauls to be tarred.

To warp water, in Shakespeare, is forced and unusual; indeed it is not English.