Word: vamp Part of Speech: verb 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”). Pronunciation: /væmp/ 1. To patch, repair, or refurbish. Labels: transitive Example: 'Set me some great task, ye gods! and I will show my spirit.' 'Not so,' says the good Heaven; 'plod and plough, vamp your old coats and hats, weave a shoestring; great affairs and the best wine by and by.' 2. Often as vamp up: to fabricate or put together (something) from existing material, or by adding new material to something existing. Labels: transitive Example: He has vamp'd an old speech, and the court to their sorrow, / Shall hear him harangue against Prior to morrow. Example: For instance, you take the uncompleted books of living authors, fresh from their hands, wet from the press, cut, hack, and carve them to the powers and capacities of your actors, and the capability of your theatres, finish unfinished works, hastily and crudely vamp up ideas not yet worked out by their original projector, but which have doubtless cost him many thoughtful days and sleepless nights; […] 3. To cobble together, to extemporize, to improvise. Labels: transitive Example: A paſt, vamp'd, future, old, reviv'd, nevv piece, / 'Tvvixt Plautus, Fletcher, Congreve, and Corneille, / Can make a C——r, Jo——n, or O——ll. Example: Two pence he had gotten by begging, that 's all; / One bought him a bruſh, and one a black ball; / […] / Thus vamp'd and accoutred, with clouts, ball, and bruſh, / He gallantly ventur'd his fortune to puſh; […] 4. To cobble together, to extemporize, to improvise. Labels: ambitransitive, specifically, transitive Example: "It is so unkind to joke about it," said the beautiful young lady. "What shall I do? If somebody will vamp an accompaniment, I can get on very well without any music. But if I try to play for myself I shall break down." Example: The band played ceaselessly. Even when the other instruments were resting the pianist kept up his monotonous vamping, with a dreary furbelow for embellishment here and there, to which some few of the dancers continued to shuffle round the floor. 5. To attach a vamp (to footwear). Labels: transitive Example: The shoe is now ready to be vamped after the eyelets are put in. 6. To travel by foot; to walk. Labels: ambitransitive, dialectal Example: Well, vamp on to Marlott, will 'ee, and order that carriage, and maybe I'll drive round and inspect the club. 7. To delay or stall for time, as for an audience. Labels: intransitive Example: Keep vamping! Something’s wrong with the mic! Example: She went out there to vamp since the speaker was late arriving. 8. To pawn. Labels: UK, obsolete, slang, transitive Example: 'I'll find my own fencing cove or else vamp it to a pawnbroker.'