warped
Americanadjective
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bent or twisted out of shape, especially from a flat or straight form.
A couple of warped planks made a sort of rickety footbridge from the sidewalk to the door.
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bent or turned from the natural, normal, or true direction or character.
This manipulative behavior comes from the warped relationship she had with her over-controlling mother.
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distorted from the truth, fact, true meaning or interpretation, etc.; biased; false.
Unfortunately you can always find a huge number of websites that will support any warped worldview your anxiety presents you with.
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Aeronautics. (of a wing or other airfoil) curved or bent at the end to promote equilibrium or to secure lateral control.
A warped wing also shows significant improvement in the aircraft’s lift-to-drag ratio.
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Agriculture. (of land) fertilized by flooding with water that deposits alluvial matter.
Water management systems evolved to bring nutrients to fields—as in rice paddies, but also in the water meadows and warped fields of Europe.
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of warped
First recorded in 1425–75; warp ( def. ) + -ed 2 ( def. ) for the adjective senses; warp ( def. ) + -ed 1 ( def. ) for the verb sense
Explanation
Use the adjective warped to describe something that's twisted or bent. If you leave a wooden kitchen chair out in the rain, it may eventually become too warped to sit on. Something that's warped is misshapen, like a maple cutting board left to soak in the sink, or a plastic cup that melted and twisted in the hot summer sun. Colloquially, you can also use this word for anything bizarre or distorted, like your older brother's weird, warped sense of humor. The Germanic root of warped means "to turn or bend."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Two load-bearing columns of a 37-story tower currently under construction, located near Grand Central Terminal, warped and several floors sagged on Tuesday.
From Barron's ● Jul. 8, 2026
Everything from eating out to kids’ extracurricular activities has been warped by the wealthy’s ability to spend regardless of the price, said Brian Eder, managing partner and private wealth advisor at OnePoint BFG Wealth Partners.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 13, 2026
"Even the idea of what is attractive and what is unattractive is becoming warped," he says.
From BBC ● Jun. 6, 2026
“But we also care about the design and working with those trees, even using pieces that are warped instead of throwing them away.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 8, 2026
Rick said, “I understand now why Phil Resch said what he said. He wasn’t being cynical; he had just learned too much. Going through this—I can’t blame him. It warped him.”
From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
