Definition of "vamp" in English

noun

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. (music) 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. (by extension) An activity or speech intended to fill or stall for time.

verb

1. (transitive) To patch, repair, or refurbish.

2. (transitive) Often as vamp up: to fabricate or put together (something) from existing material, or by adding new material to something existing.

3. (transitive) To cobble together, to extemporize, to improvise.

4. (transitive, shoemaking) To attach a vamp (to footwear).

5. (ambitransitive, now dialectal) To travel by foot; to walk.

6. (intransitive) To delay or stall for time, as for an audience.

   • Keep vamping! Something’s wrong with the mic!
   • She went out there to vamp since the speaker was late arriving.

7. (transitive, UK, slang, obsolete) To pawn.

noun

1. A flirtatious, seductive woman, especially one who exploits men by using their sexual desire for her; femme fatale.

2. (informal) A vampire.

verb

1. (transitive, intransitive) To seduce or exploit someone.

2. (fiction, slang, transitive) To turn (someone) into a vampire.

3. (intransitive) To cosplay a vampire.

   • I'm planning to vamp real hard at Friday night's party.

noun

1. (US, slang) A volunteer firefighter.