Warp sb.1. World English Historical Dictionary

Warp sb.1. World English Historical Dictionary Dictionary Biographies Literary Criticism Welcome Terms of Service ⧏ Previous Next ⧐ Contents Slice Contents Key Bibliographic Record Murray’s New English Dictionary. 1928, rev. 2024. Warp sb.1 Also 1 wearp, (4 werpe, worp), 4–7 warpe. [OE. wearp warp in weaving (also used to gloss L. vīmen osier-twig), corresponds to OLG. warp (MLG. warp, warpe), OHG. warf, warph, waraf (MHG., early mod.G. warf) warp in weaving, ON. varp neut., cast of a net, a laying of eggs (Sw. varp neut., cast of a net, draught of fish, hauling-rope, masc. warp in weaving, Da. varp neut. hauling-rope):—OTeut. *warpo-, f. root *werp- : *warp- to throw: see WARP v. Branch IV is prob. a new formation on the verb.

1   Sense 6 may possibly represent an unrecorded sense of ON. varp: cf. -warp in Eng. place-names in Scandinavian districts.]

2   I.  1. Weaving. The threads that are extended lengthwise in the loom, usually twisted harder than the weft or woof, with which these threads are crossed to form the web or piece.

3 c. 725.  Corpus Gloss. (Hessels), S. 563. Stamen: wearp.

4 a. 1000.  Riddles (Gr.), xxxv[i]. 5. Wundene me ne beoð wefle, ne ic wearp hafu.

5 1346.  Little Red Bk. Bristol (1900), II. 2. Item quod nulla trama que dicitur ab sit in loco panni vbi stamen quod dicitur warp poni debet.

6 1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVIII. xi. (1495), 766. A spinner stretchyth the warpe wyth wonder craft fro the nether syde to the ouer and drawyth and bryngyth out ayen his threde thwarte ouer fro poynt to poynt.

7 c. 1420.  Wyntoun, Cron., V. xiii. 5039. Þat þar sulde litil leiff behynde Off warpe or weft to mak hir claythe.

8 1530.  Palsgr., 287/1. Warpe of clothe, chayne de drap.

9 1613.  J. May, Decl. Estate of Cloth, 26. A common thing it is for the weauer to couer a course warpe with a fine woofe, the warpe beeing spon hard and small, and the woofe soft and round to couer the warpe from sight.

10 1621.  G. Sandys, Ovid’s Met., VI. (1626), 108. Both spread At once their warps, consisting of fine thred, Ty’d to their beames.

11 1714.  Fr. Bk. Rates, 189. The Weavers shall be obliged to mount the Warps of their Linen with a sufficient Number of Threads.

12 1831.  G. R. Porter, Silk Manuf., 219. The warp is now composed of threads of an equal length.

13 1833.  J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, II. 350. Wire loom…. C, the beam or wooden roller, which is turned with a succession of deep grooves, into which the warp is wound, each groove receiving a greater or less number of wires, according to the fineness of the fabric.

14 1867.  Morris, Jason, XVII. 501. For she herself within her fair-hung room Had set the warp and watched the fine weft glide Up from the roller.

15 1893.  J. T. Taylor, Cotton Weaving (ed. 2), 55. By having the shed fully open before the shuttle enters the shed, the warp is spread and a good cover put on the cloth.

16   b.  fig. and in fig. context.

17 1575.  Gascoigne, Posies, Compl. Gr. Knt., 28. O weauer, weauer, work no more, thy warp hath done me wrong.

18 1583.  Melbancke, Philotimus, Ee j b. Neither had I this clue of care to worke my warpe vpon.

19 1679.  Everard, Discourses, 13. By the whole sincere Warp of this History here related, we may see how rash a thing it is to judge of the Actions of a great Prince.

20 1849.  Robertson, Serm., Ser. I. xxi. (1866), 348. Sorrow is … the … woof which is woven into the warp of life.

21 1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), II. 86. He weaves together the frame of his discourse loosely and which is the warp and which is the woof cannot always be determined.

22 1896.  W. Watson, in Westm. Gaz., 2 Jan., 2/3. Still, on Life’s loom, the infernal warp and weft Woven each hour!

23 1912.  E. C. Selwyn, Oracles N. T., iii. 85. Throughout his [Luke’s] narrative there is the underlying warp of the Old Testament.

24   2.  Naut. (See quot.)

25 1794.  Rigging & Seamanship, I. 179. Warp, or more properly Woof, is the twine … woven across the knittles in pointing. Ibid. Warp of Shrouds, the first given length, taken from the bolster at the mast-head to the foremost dead-eye.

26   II.  3. Naut. A rope or light hawser attached at one end to some fixed object, used in hauling or in moving a ship from one place to another in a harbor, road, or river; a warping hawser. † Also (at Ilfracombe), a certain apparatus for hauling in vessels: cf. warp-house (in 10).

27 1296.  [see warp-rope in sense 9].

28 1342.  Cust. Acc., 176/3. (MS.). j cord’ pro worp.

29 1420.  in For. Acc. 3 Hen. VI., K/2 (MS.). ij hauusers de filo Burdegalie pro Frapelines et Warpe inde faciendis ponderis ciij quart. ix. lb.

30 1485.  Naval Acc. Hen. VII. (1896), 36. Smalle Warpes … j, Hawsers … xij.

31 1550.  Acts Privy Council (1890), II. 370. Cables, hawsers, warpes, pitche, tarre.

32 1562.  Bulleyn, Bulwark, Bk. Simples (1579), 27. No Shippe can sayle without Hempe, the sayle clothes,… yearde lines, warps & Cables can not be made without it.

33 1615.  in W. Foster, Lett. recd. E. Ind. Co. (1899), III. 201. We have been much troubled about the getting up of the ship-pinnace for lack of men and warps.

34 1630.  Lex Londinensis (1680), 212. Likewise to have a Warpe of forty fathom to sheer off and give way if any Ship … shall chance to drive upon them.

35 1726.  Shelvocke, Voy. round World, 19. I … laid warps to haul into shoal water.

36 1731.  Act 4 Geo. II., c. 19. There shall be paid by the Master or Commander of every Vessel, belonging to the Port of Ilfordcombe, who shall make use of the Warp, the Sum of Six Shillings and eight Pence.

37 1840.  R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxxvi. 139. [We] took the warp ashore, manned the capstan [etc.].

38 1841.  B. Hall, Patchwork, II. 3. An entering … ship is drawn along by a rope, or warp, as it is called.

39 1899.  F. T. Bullen, Log Sea-waif, 254Ѿ5. Our discharging was soon over, the warps cast off.

40   transf.  1851.  Harper’s Mag., III. 518. Loads are eased down hillsides by the use of … a strong warp taking a bight round a tree and hitching-to one yoke oxen.

41   b.  Trawl-fishing. A rope attached to a net.

42 1835.  J. Couch, in 3rd Rep. R. Cornw. Polytechn. Soc., 74. When every thing is favourable, a warp from the end of the stop-sean is handed to the volyer.

43 1854.  Putnam’s Monthly Mag., April, 362/2. The fishermen beach the boat at the other side of the bay, carry the warp at that end to the further capstan, and prepare to haul.

44 1883.  R. F. Walsh, Ir. Fisheries, 11. Some use stoppers, which extend from the top line downwards to the warps, but these are not so advantageous, as they tend to huddle the net together.

45   c.  Whaling. (See quot.)

46 1898.  F. T. Bullen, Cruise ‘Cachalot,’ xix. 226. The second mate had three fish fast … two on ‘short warps,’ or pieces of whale-line some eight or ten fathoms long fastened to harpoons, with the other ends running on the main line by means of bowlines round it.

47   † 4.  ? A strand of a fishing-line. Obs.

48 1496.  Fysshynge wyth Angle, 13. Thenne twyne euery warpe one waye and ylyke moche: and fasten theym in thre clyftes ylyke streyghte.

49   III.  5. A tale of four (occas. three or a couple), esp. used of fish and oysters.

50 1436.  Nottingham Rec., II. 156. Item in uno warpe de saltfyssh.

51 1509.  Market Harb. Rec. (1890), 230. In salt Fyshe xcvij warpe and half.

52 1533.  in Archæologia, XXV. 523. For ij warpe off lynge & a warpe of codd, viij d.

53 1589.  R. Harvey, Plain Perc. (1590), 14. In euery trade and occupation, there is a better and a worse, as there is in euery warpe of fish, a great and a lesse.

54 1623.  Althorp MS., in Simpkinson, Washingtons (1860), p. lii. Mdm That every two fishes of linge, haberdine, & greenfish is one warpe.

55 1674.  Jeake, Arith. Surv. (1696), 66. Yet at Yarmouth they sell 33. Warpe to the Hundred.

56 1796.  Statist. Acc. Scot., XVII. 69. A hundred [of oysters], as sold by the fishers, contains 33 warp equal to six score and twelve…. Four oysters make a warp.

57 1816.  Scott, Antiq., xxxi. His honour Monkbarns should never want sax warp of oysters in the season.

58 1894.  Hall Caine, Manxman, V. iii. Every man ate his warp of herring.

59   † b.  nonce-use. A warp of weeks, four weeks.

60 1599.  Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, C 1. Those embenched shelues … where cods & dogfishe swomme (not a warp of weeks forerunning).

61   IV.  6. Alluvial sediment deposited by water; silt. Sometimes artificially introduced over low-lying land, and sometimes occurring as a stratum in soil.

62 1698.  De la Pryme, Diary (Surtees), 184. In digging of the well … they found … three yard sand, one foot fine warp. Ibid., 314. Ye muddy waters of ye Don and Idle … deposited so much silt and warp that they made a great deal of high land on both sides of their streams.

63 1798.  Trans. Soc. Arts, XVI. 179. Greatly improved by a sediment or mud (commonly called warpe) from the river Dun.

64 1805.  R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., I. 435. The tide is let in at high water to deposit the warp or enriching substance.

65 1839.  Stonehouse, Isle of Axholme, 25. At Althorpe, in sinking wells, eight or ten feet of warp have been dug through, then one or two feet of sand, and then warp again.

66 1865.  W. White, East. Eng., II. 38. Bog … converted into corn-fields, by spreading over them the warp or muddy deposit dug from an old riverbed.

67 1894.  Athenæum, 9 June, 744/3. The evidence of their antiquity rests, therefore, upon their geological position under the contorted drift otherwise called ‘warp and trail.’

68   b.  A bed or layer of this. See also quot. 1867.

69 1678.  Phillips (ed. 4), Warp, a Shole, that beginning near the Buoy of Oar-hedge, comes out of the Swin up the River.

70 1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Warp,… land between the sea-banks and the sea.

71 1870.  E. Peacock, Ralf Skirl., II. 87. He would gallop like mad down the warps.

72 1872.  A. C. Ramsay, Phys. Geog. (ed. 3), 107. Covered … with an oozy loam like the warps of the Wash and the Humber.

73   V.  7. A twist or bending, esp. in wood not properly dried; also the state of being warped or twisted.

74 1679.  Evelyn, Sylva, xxvii. (ed. 3), 143. The Wind-shock is a bruise, and shiver throughout the Tree, though not constantly visible, yet leading the Warp from smooth renting, caused by over-powerful Winds, when young.

75 1668.  Wilkins, Real Char., II. ix. § 4. 243. Bending, bow, warp, crooke.

76 1871.  M. Collins, Marq. & Merch., I. ix. 295. A warp in the glass made him look as if he had taken poison.

77 1878.  Bosw. Smith, Carthage, xviii. 329. Those [ships] which were newly built he laid up for the winter in dry docks … that their unseasoned timbers might warp or leak in a place where a warp or leak would not be fatal to them.

78 1894.  Blackmore, Perlycross, iv. 20. Ah! it is a little on the warp, I fear.

79   8.  fig. A perversion or perverse inclination of the mind; a mental twist; a wrong bias.

80 1764.  Mem. G. Psalmanazar, 41. An unchristian warp of the will.

81 1786.  Han. More, Florio, 689.        A little warp his taste had gain’d, Which, unperceiv’d, till now, remain’d.

82 1830.  Examiner, 615/1. One of the author’s warps was against … Utilitarians.

83 1848.  Dickens, Dombey, xlv. Mr. Dombey … is so prone to pervert even facts to his own view, when he is at all opposed, in consequence of the warp in his mind, that he [etc.].

84 1875.  Ruskin, Fors Clav., liii. 121. All the teaching of God … is not only mysterious, but, if received with any warp of mind, deceptive.

85 a. 1878.  S. Bowles, in Merriam, Life (1885), II. 337 (Cent.). Somebody in Berkshire, I fancy, had warped his mind against you, and no mind is more capable of warps than his.

86   VI.  9. attrib. and Comb., as (sense 1) warp edging, line, machinery, -mill, -roller, -scouring vbl. sb., -spinner, -thread, -twist, -yarn; (sense 3) warp-anchor, -rope; (sense 6) warp-bank, land, loam.

87 1699.  T. Allison, Voy. Archangel, 12. I … carried both the Kedge Anchor and *Warp Anchor ashore.

88 1799.  A. Young, Agric. Lincoln., 166. Mr. Webster … has it [lucerne] drilled; and very luxuriant the first year, on a *warp bank.

89 1888.  Daily News, 9 July, 2/7. Irish crochet trimmings and *warp edgings are dull of sale.

90 1794.  Leatham, Agric. E. Riding Yorks., 11. Along the side of the Ouse and Humber we find a considerable quantity of *warp land.

91 1879.  Ashenhurst, Weaving, 110. The *Warp Line.

92 1799.  A. Young, Agric. Lincoln, 9. Beyond this … is a very rich *warp loam of various description.

93 1838.  Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 390/2. Fabrics produced by *Warp Machinery.

94 1839.  Ure, Dict. Arts, 1284. One-sixth of that number of bobbins is usually mounted at once in a *warp mill.

95 1825.  J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 411. These rods are at different periods moved towards the *warp-roller B.

96 1296.  Acc. Exch. K. R., 5/20 m. 4 b (MS.). j. Boulyn, j. *Warperape, iijes Cabule.

97 1497.  Naval Acc. Hen. VII. (1896), 115. Hawser cald warp rope.

98 1844.  G. Dodd, Textile Manuf., iv. 130. A process of *‘warp-scouring’ in which the warp, after being washed, is squeezed between rollers.

99 1634.  Canterb. Marriage Licences (MS.). Robert Wood of Salehurst in Sussex, *warpe spinner.

100 1831–3.  P. Barlow, Manuf., in Encycl. Metrop. (1845), VIII. 741. The *warp thread proceeding from the lower roller.

101 1851.  Art Jrnl. Illustr. Catal., p. vi**. The long threads are called the *warp-twist, or organzine.

102 1835.  Ure, Philos. Manuf., 110. This mill spins *warp yarn by throstles, weft yarn by mules.

103   10.  Special comb.: † warp-bar, some kind of appendage to a loom; warp-beam, the roller on which the warp is wound and from which it is drawn as the weaving proceeds; warp-dresser, (a) = WARPER 2; (b) a machine for sizing yarns for the loom (Knight); † warp-faced a., having distorted features; warp-farmer, a farmer who uses ‘warp’ on his land; warp-frame = warp-machine; † warp-house, at Ilfracombe, the building containing the apparatus for hauling vessels; warp-lace, a kind of lace having threads so placed as to resemble the warp of a fabric; also attrib.; warp-machine, a lace-making machine having a thread for each needle employed (Knight); warp-net frame = prec.; warp-river, a river depositing ‘warp’; warp-slat = SLAT sb.1 5 a; warp-stitch (see quot.); warp-wire, one of the lengthwise wires in a wire-loom.

104 1538.  Nottingham Rec., III. 200. Unum wollenlome cum ryngrathes, *warpbarres et spoyle whele.

105 1831–3.  P. Barlow, Manuf., in Encycl. Metrop. (1845), VIII. 734. B is the *warp beam, or that on which the warp is first wound.

106 1851.  in Inquiry, Yorks. Deaf & Dumb (1870), 45. William Sutton, *warp-dresser.

107 1611.  Coryat, Crudities, 232. A weather beaten *warp-faced fellow.

108 1799.  A. Young, Agric. Lincoln, 278. A considerable *warp farmer told me, that the stiffer warp was the best.

109 1831–3.  P. Barlow, Manuf., in Encycl. Metrop. (1845), VIII. 740. The *warp frame.

110 1731.  Act 4 Geo. II., c. 19 Preamble. The Warp and *Warp-house by long Usage gone to Decay.

111 1742.  De Foe’s Tour Gt. Brit. (ed. 3), II. 13. The Warp-house, Light-house, Pilot-boats, and Taw-boats belonging to the Port [Ilfracombe].

112 1812.  Ann. Reg., Chron., 30. Others … demolished five *warp-lace frames.

113 1832.  Babbage, Econ. Manuf., xv. (ed. 3), 138. Another similar article, called ‘warp lace.’

114 1875.  Knight, Dict. Mech., Warp-frame or *Warp-net Frame.

115 1799.  A. Young, Agric. Lincoln, 277. No floods in the countries washed by the *warp rivers bring it [the muddy water].

116 1907.  C. Hill-Tout, Brit. N. Amer., Far West, vi. 115. To give the bottom [of the basket] the ovaloid form, which most have, the warp-slats are trimmed to the desired shape before the weft strand is woven into them.

117 1882.  Caulfeild & Saward, Dict. Needlework, 195. *Warp Stitch, an Embroidery Stitch used when threads are drawn away from the material to form the pattern. Warp stitch consists of drawing away the threads that form the weft, or cross the material, and leaving the warp or lengthways threads.

118 1833.  J. Holland, Manuf. Metal, II. 351. The *warp-wires being made to change positions by means of the treadle.

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