/ · 1894 Brewer’s · W · Warp (To)
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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.
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