n.
- The upper part of a boot or shoe covering the instep and sometimes extending over the toe.
- Something patched up or refurbished.
- Something rehashed, as a book based on old material.
- Music. An improvised accompaniment.
v., vamped, vamp·ing, vamps. v.tr.
- To provide (a shoe) with a new vamp.
- To patch up (something old); refurbish.
- To put together; fabricate or improvise: With no hard news available about the summit meeting, the reporters vamped up questions based only on rumor.
- Music. To improvise (an accompaniment, for example) for a solo.
To improvise simple accompaniment or variation of a tune.
[Middle English vampe, sock, from Old French avanpie : avaunt, before; see vanguard + pie, foot (from Latin pēs).]
vamper vamp'er n.vamp2 (vămp) Informal.
n.
A woman who uses her sex appeal to entrap and exploit men.
v., vamped, vamp·ing, vamps. v.tr.
To seduce or exploit (someone) in the manner of a vamp.
v.intr.
To play the part of a vamp.
[Short forVAMPIRE .]
vampish vamp'ish adj.vampishly vamp'ish·ly adv.
vampy vamp'y adj.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
