wharp

Noun

warp (countable and uncountable, plural warps)

1. (uncountable) The state, quality, or condition of being physically bent or twisted out of shape.
   • All frames found to suffer from warp should be broken up straight away before the printer is tempted during a rush to make use of them.1920, The British Journal of Photography, volume 67, page 246
2. (uncountable) The state, quality, or condition of being deviant from what is right or proper morally or mentally.
   • He believed that we were suffering from warp or bias, that a blind spot contorted our mental vision.1933, Journal of the National Proctologic Association, volume 6, number 5, page 126
3. (countable) A distortion or twist, such as in a piece of wood (also used figuratively).
   • Wills, too, was struck down by a pole but was saved because a warp in the wood bent upwards, creating a pocket for his body.1998, Gary May, Hard Oiler!: The Story of Canadians' Quest for Oil at Home, page 86
4. (countable) A mental or moral distortion, deviation, or aberration.
   • It is interesting to note that it has been suggested by Lugaro to partially extirpate the thyroid in cases of moral insanity; an excessive secretion of thyroid being regarded as the cause of excessive amativeness, thieving, and other mental warps […]1905, Therapeutic Gazette, page 752
5. The threads that run lengthwise in a woven fabric; crossed by the woof or weft.
6. (figuratively) The foundation, the basis, the undergirding.
   • The sense of sin (enforced by piacular rites) is as important to social integration as the committing of crimes (in due proportion) which alone can cause the mobilization of moral values that is the warp of society and of human conscience.1993, The Sociological Tradition, →ISBN, page 251

See all 26 meanings of warp