Definizione monolingua

vamp

vamp (third-person singular simple present vamps, present participle vamping, simple past and past participle vamped)

1. (shoemaking) To attach a vamp.
2. To walk.
   • 1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the dUrbervilles,

     ""To be sure—Id quite forgot it in my thoughts of greater things! Well, vamp on to Marlott, will ye, and order that carriage, and maybe Ill drive round and inspect the club.""

3. To patch, repair, or refurbish.
   • 1860, Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Conduct of Life,

     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.

4. (often as vamp up) to put together, improvise, or fabricate.
   • 1839, Charles Dickens, The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby,

     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; ...

   • 1911, G. K. Chesterton, The Flying Stars, in The Innocence of Father Brown,

     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.

5. (music) To perform a vamp; to perform a repeated, often improvised accompaniment, e.g. under dialogue or awaiting the readiness of a soloist.
   • 1905, George Bernard Shaw, The Irrational Knot,

     ""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.""

6. To stall or delay, as for an audience.

   Keep vamping! Somethings wrong with the mic!

   She went out there to vamp since the speaker was late arriving.

vamp (plural vamps)

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. [ca. 1225]
   • 1869, Richard Doddridge Blackmore, Lorna Doone,

     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.

   • 1893, Thomas Hardy, The Three Strangers,

     Yes, I am rather cracked in the vamp, he said freely, seeing that the eyes of the shepherds wife fell upon his boots, ...

2. Something added to give an old thing a new appearance; a patch.
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, e.g., to accommodate dialogue or to anticipate the entrance of a soloist. [ca. 1789]
   • 2005, Steve Swayne, How Sondheim Found his Sound,

     I would go even further and say that, once 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 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 characters skin through his accompaniment.

5. An activity or speech intended to fill time or stall.
6. A volunteer fire fighter.
   • 1892, Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.). Fire Dept, Our firemen: the official history of the Brooklyn Fire Department, from the first volunteer to the latest appointee,

     John Mackin was among the number of ""old vamps"" who made application to the first Board of Fire ...

   • 2000, Turner Publishing Company, Atlanta Fire Department: Commemorative Yearbook,

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

   • 2008, John Delin, Syosset People and Places,

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

Definizione dizionario vamp

vamp

Altri significati:

To walk.

(transitive) To seduce or exploit someone.

A seductive woman who uses her sex appeal to exploit men.

An activity or speech intended to fill time or stall.

(shoemaking) To attach a vamp.

(often as vamp up) to put together, improvise, or fabricate.

Something patched up, pieced together, improvised, or refurbished.

seductive woman

A flirtatious, seductive woman, especially one who uses sexual desire to exploit men. [ca. 1915]

Something added to give an old thing a new appearance; a patch.

To stall or delay, as for an audience.

A volunteer fire fighter.

(music) To perform a vamp; to perform a repeated, often improvised accompaniment, e.g. under dialogue or awaiting the readiness of a soloist.

To patch, repair, or refurbish.

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. [ca. 1225]

(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, e.g., to accommodate dialogue or to anticipate the entrance of a soloist. [ca. 1789]