vamp

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.

   “The flow of water was in my ears, and in my eyes a hazy spreading, and upon my brain a closure, as a cobbler sews a vamp up.”

   “'Yes, I am rather cracked in the vamp,' he said freely, seeing that the eyes of the shepherd's wife fell upon his boots, 'and I am not well fitted either. I have had rough times lately, and have been forced to pick up what I can get in the way of wearing, but I must find a suit better fit for working days when I reach home.'”

   “Their dark brown shoes had hand-stitched vamps.”

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.

   “I would go even further and say that, once [Stephen] Sondheim had ceased to compose classical music with its nonspecific accompaniments, he began to explore how effectively a vamp can flesh out a character for the stage. He had little need to write distinctive vamps for his Williams [College] shows, but already in 1954—before the highly characteristic vamps in West Side Story—we see him growing in his ability to get under a character's skin through his accompaniment.”

   “On the mega-rave circuit, a pop hardcore sound gradually emerged, fusing the piano vamps and shrieking divas of 1989-era Italo house with Belgian hardcore's monster-riffs and Shut Up and Dance style breakbeats and rumblin' bass.”

5. (broadly)An activity or speech intended to fill or stall for time.
6. A flirtatious, seductive woman, especially one who exploits men by using their sexual desire for her.

   “It is the vamp who has a sense of humor that can really hold a man. She laughs at him, even as she is seeking to allure him—and he adores it.”

   “She was got up to the best of her ability as a siren, more popularly a "vamp"—a picker up and thrower away of men, an unscrupulous and fundamentally unmoved toyer with affections.”

   “"Lady Miriam?" said Jarvis in surprise. "Oh, yes. … I suppose you mean that she looks a queer sort of vamp. But you've no notion what even the ladies of the best families are looking like nowadays.[…]"”

   “Well, her seclusion is considered suspicious. She annoys them by being good-looking and even what is called good style. And all the young men are warned against her as a vamp.”

   “[…]strait-laced Sandy, played by Olivia Newton-John, transformed herself into a vamp to bag the man of her dreams”

7. (informal)A vampire.

   “The leader of the vampire cult (played by Ramon D'Salva) leads his cult of fellow vamps in an attack against some nasty werewolves.”

8. (US, slang)A volunteer firefighter.

   “John Mackin is one of the old-timers of the new Department. He was a volunteer fireman as well, […] John Mackin was among the number of "old vamps" who made application to the first Board of Fire Commissioners for appointment in the Paid Department.”

   “The vamps had to carry their equipment to the fire on foot!”

   “Volunteer firemen are called vamps because they often went to fires on foot, vamp being an old English word for "walk." Syosset's first vamps responded quickly to fires and formed bucket brigades to extinguish them.”

verb

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

   “'Set me some great task, ye gods! and I will show my spirit.' 'Not so,' says the good Heaven; 'plod and plough, vamp your old coats and hats, weave a shoestring; great affairs and the best wine by and by.'”

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

   “He has vamp'd an old speech, and the court to their sorrow, / Shall hear him harangue against Prior to morrow.”

   “For instance, you take the uncompleted books of living authors, fresh from their hands, wet from the press, cut, hack, and carve them to the powers and capacities of your actors, and the capability of your theatres, finish unfinished works, hastily and crudely vamp up ideas not yet worked out by their original projector, but which have doubtless cost him many thoughtful days and sleepless nights; […]”

   “With real though rude art, the harlequin danced slowly backwards out of the door into the garden, which was full of moonlight and stillness. The vamped dress of silver paper and paste, which had been too glaring in the footlights, looked more and more magical and silvery as it danced away under a brilliant moon.”

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

   “A paſt, vamp'd, future, old, reviv'd, nevv piece, / 'Tvvixt Plautus, Fletcher, Congreve, and Corneille, / Can make a C——r, Jo——n, or O——ll.”

   “Two pence he had gotten by begging, that 's all; / One bought him a bruſh, and one a black ball; / […] / Thus vamp'd and accoutred, with clouts, ball, and bruſh, / He gallantly ventur'd his fortune to puſh; […]”

   “[S]ome men, nay, even some monks and brothers of this very house, are so envious of my state and foes to my peace of mind, that whenever they see me more happy and fuller of hope than common, they vamp me up some story or conjure some spectrum to disquiet me and sadden me!”

4. (ambitransitive, specifically, transitive)To cobble together, to extemporize, to improvise.

   “"It is so unkind to joke about it," said the beautiful young lady. "What shall I do? If somebody will vamp an accompaniment, I can get on very well without any music. But if I try to play for myself I shall break down."”

   “The band played ceaselessly. Even when the other instruments were resting the pianist kept up his monotonous vamping, with a dreary furbelow for embellishment here and there, to which some few of the dancers continued to shuffle round the floor.”

   “[W]hen she [Billie Holiday] finally emerged from her dressing room, she would take her time getting to the stage, stopping and greeting people and even having drinks at the bar while her accompanists vamped.”

5. (transitive)To attach a vamp (to footwear).

   “The shoe is now ready to be vamped after the eyelets are put in.”

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

   “Well, vamp on to Marlott, will 'ee, and order that carriage, and maybe I'll drive round and inspect the club.”

7. (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.”

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

   “'I'll find my own fencing cove or else vamp it to a pawnbroker.'”

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

   “We want a musical-comedy star to vamp a Senator or a member of the Cabinet; we want the protective tariff revised up or down because of an actress' whim; we want scarlet scandal in high life. And we are not likely to get them.”

   “"People who lose all their charity generally lose all their logic," remarked Father Brown. "It's rather ridiculous to complain that she keeps to herself; and then accuse her of vamping the whole male population."”

   “She smiled again. Batted her lashes and laid down a few more mascara tracks. Vamping in order to maintain composure.”

   “She vamps this month on the cover of British Vogue, a portrait of artfully crafted provocation.”

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

    “If I knew what I know now before I got vamped, I'd do the same thing.”

    “Astonishing how few peasants and regular people got vamped back in the olden days, when it wasn't regulated.”

    “Nobody ever got the drop on Shades, not even when he was alive, and certainly not in the fifty years since he got vamped.”

11. (intransitive)To cosplay a vampire.

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