vamp

Meaning

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. 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. (broadly) 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. (ambitransitive, specifically, transitive) To cobble together, to extemporize, to improvise.
5. (transitive) To attach a vamp (to footwear).
6. (ambitransitive, dialectal) To travel by foot; to walk.
7. (intransitive) To delay or stall for time, as for an audience.
8. (UK, obsolete, slang, transitive) To pawn.

Verb

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

Synonyms

coquette

vamp up

flirt

😘

revamp

vamper

enchantress

siren

tease

temptress

patch

seduce

minx

mend

repair

prickteaser

cobble

seductress

fix

extemporize

femme fatale

fill

front

harvest

hex

improvise

jilt

lure

make

mark

patch up

philander

piece

reclaim

recondition

accompany

refit

reform

remedy

renovate

ruin

score

tempt

tinker

touch on

trump up

vampire

🧛

witch

Delilah

reface

recoct

Translations

vamp

Vamp

vampiresa

femme fatale

vampiressa

mujer fatal

interesseira

saya

μοιραία γυναίκα

φιλάρεσκη

donna fatale

ξελογιάστρα

αυτοσχεδιάζω

yamalamak

Pronounced as (IPA)

/væmp/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: vaumpe

Cognate with Middle English: vaum-peien

In summary

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”).