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.
While that venue currently holds more conventions than concerts, Long Beach has hosted notable outdoor music festivals in recent years, including Warped Tour, Day Trip and Dreamstate.
From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 4, 2026
This year the OG Warped Tour set can get a fix with Less Than Jake, skanking along to “All My Best Friends are Metalheads” and “History of a Boring Town.”
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 9, 2026
For him, working on Warped Tour is simply a return to a scene and community that’s always been embedded in his background.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 21, 2025
Lyman, who is also an associate professor at USC, had been itching to bring back Warped Tour, and the encouragement to revive it largely came from Insomniac founder and CEO Pasquale Rotella.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 21, 2025
Warped alongside the blockship, the dingy hulls lean over like affectionate sisters that have been long parted; and, flinging their arms together, remain fast locked in each other’s embrace.
From The Highlands of Ethiopia by Harris, William Cornwallis
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.
