Emily Dickinson Lexicon

WARP, v.t.

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.