Emily Dickinson Lexicon

WARP, v.i. [Sax. weorpan, wurpan, wyrpan, to throw, to return; G. werfen, to cast or throw, to whelp; D. werpen, to throw or fling, to whelp, kitten or litter; Dan. værper, to lay eggs; varper, to tow; Sw. värpa, to lay eggs; Ir. and Gaelic, fiaram, to bend, twist, incline.]

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.