n. 1. The upper part of a boot or shoe covering the instep and sometimes extending over the toe. 2. a. Something patched up or refurbished. b. Something rehashed, as a book based on old material. 3. Music One or more bars of music repeated indefinitely as an accompaniment. v. vamped, vamp·ing, vamps v.tr. 1. To provide (a shoe) with a new vamp. 2. To patch up (something old); refurbish. 3. To put together; fabricate or improvise: With no hard news available about the summit meeting, the reporters vamped up questions based only on rumor. 4. Music a. To play (a vamp). b. To improvise (a melody) over a vamp. v.intr. Music 1. To play a vamp. 2. To improvise over a vamp. [Middle English vampe, sock, from Old French avanpie : avaunt, before; see VANGUARD + pie, foot (from Latin pēs; see ped- in the Appendix of Indo-European roots).] vamper n. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
n. 1. A woman who aggressively seduces men, sometimes to exploit or manipulate them. 2. A vampire. v. vamped, vamp·ing, vamps v. tr. To seduce or exploit (someone) in the manner of a vamp. v. intr. To behave like a vamp. [Short for VAMPIRE.] vampish adj. vampish·ly adv. vampy adj. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.