vamp

1. (transitive) To patch, repair, or refurbish.Examples: "'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.'"transitive

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

3. (transitive) To cobble together, to extemporize, to improvise.Examples: "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!"transitive

4. (transitive) To cobble together, to extemporize, to improvise.Examples: ""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."ambitransitivespecificallytransitive

5. (transitive, shoemaking) To attach a vamp (to footwear).Examples: "The shoe is now ready to be vamped after the eyelets are put in."transitive

6. (ambitransitive, now dialectal) To travel by foot; to walk.Examples: "Well, vamp on to Marlott, will 'ee, and order that carriage, and maybe I'll drive round and inspect the club."ambitransitivedialectal

1. (informal) A vampire.Examples: "The leader of the vampire cult (played by Ramon D'Salva) leads his cult of fellow vamps in an attack against some nasty werewolves."informal

1. (transitive, intransitive) To seduce or exploit someone.Examples: "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."intransitivetransitive

2. (fiction, slang, transitive) To turn (someone) into a vampire.Examples: "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."slangtransitive

3. (intransitive) To cosplay a vampire.Examples: "I'm planning to vamp real hard at Friday night's party."intransitive

1. (US, slang) A volunteer firefighter.Examples: "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."USslang