warp

an immaterial thing upon which something else rests an unshakable belief in the essential goodness of humankind is the warp of his philosophy Synonyms basis, bedrock, bottom, cornerstone, footing, foundation, ground, groundwork, keystone, root, underpinning, base, warp and woofRelated Words anchorage, bed, brace, bulwark, buttress, framework, infrastructure, mount, prop, shore, stay, substratum, substructure, support; assumption, justification, premise (also premiss), presumption, presupposition, rationale, supposition, theory, thesis, warrant; backbone, center, core, cornerstone, eye, focus, heart, hub, kernel, keystone, nucleus, seat; essence, quintessence, soul, touchstone

1 to change so much as to create a wrong impression or alter the meaning of the faulty English translation really warps the meaning of the original Russian text Synonyms bend, color, cook, distort, falsify, fudge, misinterpret, misrelate, misrepresent, misstate, pervert, slant, twist, garbleRelated Words misdescribe, misspeak, mistranslate; belie, camouflage, disguise, dissemble, gloss (over), mask, veil, whitewash; bowdlerize, censor; complicate, confound, confuse, mistake, mix (up); mystify, obscure; equivocate, fib, lie, palter, prevaricateNear Antonyms clarify, clear (up), explain, illuminate, illustrate, interpret, spell out; decipher

2 to lower in character, dignity, or quality claims that violent movies warp the values of our young people Synonyms abase, bastardize, canker, cheapen, corrupt, debauch, degrade, demean, demoralize, deprave, deteriorate, lessen, pervert, poison, profane, prostitute, subvert, vitiate, debaseRelated Words befoul, begrime, contaminate, defile, dilute, dirty, pollute, taint, thin, water down, weaken; descend; disgrace, dishonor, humble, humiliate, shame, take down; blemish, damage, deface, destroy, flaw, harm, hurt, impair, mar, ruin, spoil, stain, tarnish, wreck; depreciate, downgradeNear Antonyms dignify, exalt, honor; ameliorate, amend, better, enhance, enrich, improve, meliorate, perfect; clarify, clean, cleanse, purify, refine, restore; respectAntonyms elevate, ennoble, uplift

3 to twist (something) out of a natural or normal shape or condition freezing warped the plastic, and now the cover won't fit Synonyms deform, distort, misshape, screw, squinch, torture, contortRelated Words deface, disfigure; wrench, wrest, wring; coil, curl, loop, spiral, twine, wind, wreatheNear Antonyms straighten, unbend, uncurl