vamp
Plural: vamps
Noun
- a seductive woman who uses her sex appeal to exploit men
- an improvised musical accompaniment
- piece of leather forming the front part of the upper of a shoe
- The top part of a boot or shoe, above the sole and welt and in front of the ankle seam, that covers the instep and toes; the front part of an upper; the analogous part of a stocking.
- Something added to give an old thing a new appearance.
- Something patched up, pieced together, improvised, or refurbished.
- A repeated and often improvised accompaniment, usually consisting of one or two measures, often a single chord or simple chord progression, repeated as necessary, for example, to accommodate dialogue or to anticipate the entrance of a soloist.
- An activity or speech intended to fill or stall for time.
- A flirtatious, seductive woman, especially one who exploits men by using their sexual desire for her; femme fatale.
- A vampire.
- A volunteer firefighter.
Verb
Verb Forms: vamped, vamping, vamps
- To repair, improvise, or create something anew.
- make up
- "vamp up an excuse for not attending the meeting"
- piece (something old) with a new part
- "vamp up an old speech"
- act seductively with (someone)
- provide (a shoe) with a new vamp
- "revamp my old boots"
- To patch, repair, or refurbish.
- Often as vamp up: to fabricate or put together (something) from existing material, or by adding new material to something existing.
- To cobble together, to extemporize, to improvise.
- To cobble together, to extemporize, to improvise.
- To perform a vamp (“a repeated, often improvised accompaniment, for example, under dialogue or while waiting for a soloist to be ready”).
- To attach a vamp (to footwear).
- To travel by foot; to walk.
- To delay or stall for time, as for an audience.
- To pawn.
- To seduce or exploit someone.
- To turn (someone) into a vampire.
- To cosplay a vampire.
Examples
- He had to VAMP a new strategy after his initial plan failed spectacularly.
- I'm planning to vamp real hard at Friday night's party.
- Keep vamping! Something’s wrong with the mic!
- She went out there to vamp since the speaker was late arriving.
Origin / Etymology
From Middle English vaumpe, vaum-pei, vampe (“covering for the foot, perhaps a slipper or understocking; upper of a boot or shoe”), or from Anglo-Norman vampe, *vaumpé (“part of a stocking covering the top of the foot”), from Old French avantpied, avantpiet, variants of avantpié, from avant (“in front”) + pié (“foot”).
Noun senses 2 and 3 (“a patch; something patched up or improvised”) appear to have been extended from sense 1 (“top part of a boot or shoe”). Sense 4 (“repeated and often improvised musical accompaniment”) was probably derived from sense 3, and sense 5 (“activity to fill or stall for time”) from sense 4.
The verb senses were derived from the noun. Compare also Middle English vaum-peien (“(uncertain) to repair (footwear) with a new upper or vamp; to fabricate an upper or vamp”).
Synonyms
coquette, flirt, minx, prickteaser, revamp, tease, vamp up, vamper, enchantress, femme fatale, man-eater, mantrap, patch, seductress, she-wolf, siren, temptress, vamp, vixen, wolfess
Scrabble Score: 11
vamp: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordvamp: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
vamp: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary