Warp (To)

A sea term, meaning to shift the position of a vessel. This is done by means of a rope called a warp. Kedging is when the warp is bent to a kedge, which is let go, and the vessel is hove ahead by the capstan.

“The potent rod

Of Amram’s son [Moses], in Egypt’s evil day,

Waved round the coast, up-called a pitchy cloud

Of locusts, warping [shifting about] in the eastern wind.”

Milton: Paradise Lost, i. 338.

⁂ In Lancashire, warping means laying eggs; and boys, on finding a bird’s nest, will ask—“And how many eggs has she warped?”

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.