vamp

Meanings

1. 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.
2. Something added to give an old thing a new appearance.
3. Something patched up, pieced together, improvised, or refurbished.
4. 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.
5. An activity or speech intended to fill or stall for time.

1. To patch, repair, or refurbish.
2. Often as vamp up: to fabricate or put together (something) from existing material, or by adding new material to something existing.
3. To cobble together, to extemporize, to improvise.
4. To perform a vamp (“a repeated, often improvised accompaniment, for example, under dialogue or while waiting for a soloist to be ready”).
5. To attach a vamp (to footwear).
6. To travel by foot; to walk.
7. To delay or stall for time, as for an audience.
8. To pawn.

1. A flirtatious, seductive woman, especially one who exploits men by using their sexual desire for her.
2. A vampire.

1. To seduce or exploit someone.
2. To turn (someone) into a vampire.
3. To cosplay a vampire.

1. A volunteer firefighter.

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”).

Translations