warp v.

(intransitive) to travel through space by means of a space warp n.; (transitive) to cause to move through space, to another dimension, etc., by means of a warp

FTL

  • 1932 C. D. Simak Hellhounds of the Cosmos in Astounding Stories June 342/1 page image Clifford D. Simak bibliography

    You propose to warp a third-dimensional being into a fourth dimension. How can a third-dimensional thing exist there? You said a short time ago that only a specified dimension could exist on one single plane.

  • 1938 R. M. Williams Flight of the Dawn Star in Astounding Science-Fiction Mar. 36/1 page image Robert Moore Williams bibliography

    ‘That warp,’ said Sarl slowly. ‘—was a time warp and not a space warp. You went along with the Sun as it moved, and when you came through again, the stars had shifted and you couldn't recognize them. You thought you had been shifted in space. You had been, of course, but there are an infinite number of spaces, of possible spaces. You were warped into one where time had almost stopped. You took over the time-rate of the space where you were, and over a million years passed. When I couldn't locate your sun, I suspected the truth, and I set the controls on our sun and sent the time factor backward. There is no doubt—’

  • 1946 F. Brown Placet is a Crazy Place in Astounding Science Fiction May 129/1 page image Fredric Brown bibliography

    The Ark…would warp through space to a point a safe distance outside the Argyle I-II system and come in on rocket power.

  • 1949 T. Sturgeon Minority Report in Astounding Science Fiction June 133/1 page image Theodore Sturgeon bibliography

    Englehart himself made no calls, but the pioneers did, and Earth was ready for him when he warped in. He was welcomed as a hero, as a conquistador, a demigod.

  • 1950 R. A. Heinlein Farmer in Sky (1975) iv. 52 Robert A. Heinlein bibliography

    The little line was followed by a heavier line and then they warped us together, slowly.

  • 1956 E. Hamilton Citadel of the Star Lords in Imagination Oct. 15/1 page image Edmond Hamilton bibliography

    They warped the ordered fabric of the space-time continuum itself, and acting on the matter of himself and his plane at the ‘eye’ of the explosion, had warped them too—into the future.

  • 1962 M. Z. Bradley Sword of Aldones v. 51 Marion Zimmer Bradley bibliography

    Any attempt to make an exact molecular duplicate of a matrix like the one commanding Sharra—is it ninth level or tenth?—would warp half the planet right out of spacetime.

  • 1984 D. Duane My Enemy, my Ally ii. 28 Diane Duane bibliography

    We have to break off our researches here…and go warping off on some fleet maneuver two thousand light-years away.

  • 1989 H. Ellison The Few, The Proud in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine Mar. 24 page image Harlan Ellison bibliography

    They warped him back to TEF Mainbase on Cueball, the ringed planet orbiting Sirus, to be court-martialed and to stand trial.

  • 1989 J. M. Dillard Lost Years iii. 78 J. M. Dillard bibliography

    If it’s excitement you want, we could have you warping all over the galaxy again.

  • 2013 Herald-Times (Bloomington, Indiana) 16 May d5/4

    Kirk and his first officer, the logical Mr. Spock…, warp toward the Neutral Zone separating Federation space from the Klingon Empire.


Research requirements

antedating 1932

Earliest cite

Clifford Simak, in Astounding

Research History
Fred Galvin submitted a 1938 cite from Robert Moore Williams, in Astounding.

Last modified 2022-03-27 20:30:17
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.