vamp

Definitions

  • WordNet 3.6
    • v vamp provide (a shoe) with a new vamp "revamp my old boots"
    • v vamp act seductively with (someone)
    • v vamp piece (something old) with a new part "vamp up an old speech"
    • v vamp make up "vamp up an excuse for not attending the meeting"
    • n vamp piece of leather forming the front part of the upper of a shoe
    • n vamp an improvised musical accompaniment
    • n vamp a seductive woman who uses her sex appeal to exploit men
    • ***
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
  • Interesting fact: The word "vamp" is used to describe the upper front top of a shoe
    • Vamp (Music) A usually improvized Jazz accompaniment, consisting of simple chords in sucession.
    • Vamp Any piece added to an old thing to give it a new appearance. See Vamp v. t.
    • Vamp The part of a boot or shoe above the sole and welt, and in front of the ankle seam; an upper.
    • v. i Vamp vămp To advance; to travel.
    • Vamp To create with little skill; to concoct; to invent; -- usually with up; as, he vamped up an implausible excuse.
    • Vamp To provide, as a shoe, with new upper leather; hence, to to piece, as any old thing, with a new part; to repair; to patch; -- often followed by up. "I had never much hopes of your vamped play."
    • ***
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
    • n vamp That part of the upper leather of a boot or shoe which is in front of the seam at the ankle. See cut under boot.
    • n vamp Any piece or patch intended to give an old thing a new appearance; a piece added for appearance' sake. See the verb.
    • n vamp A protection formerly worn for the ankle and leg, and perhaps for the foot also. It seems to have been in most cases a sort of gaiter or spatterdash.
    • n vamp In music, an improvised accompaniment.
    • vamp To furnish with a new vamp or upper leather, as a shoe or boot.
    • vamp To repair; furbish up; give an appearance of newness to.
    • vamp In music, to improvise an accompaniment to.
    • vamp To improvise musical accompaniments.
    • vamp To travel; proceed; move forward.
    • ***
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
    • n Vamp vamp the upper leather of a boot or shoe
    • v.t Vamp to repair with a new vamp: to patch old with new: give a new face to:
    • v.i Vamp to improvise accompaniments, to travel, proceed
    • v.t Vamp (mus.) to improvise an accompaniment to (coll.)
    • ***

Etymology

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
OE. vampe, vaumpe, vauntpe, F. avantpied, the forefoot, vamp; avant, before, fore + pied, foot, L. pes,. See Advance Van of an army, and Foot

Usage

In literature:

The majority of mothers are vamps.
"The Shield of Silence" by Harriet T. Comstock
If it hadn't been for that I might have sized her up for a lady vamp.
"Torchy and Vee" by Sewell Ford
Talk about bein' vamped!
"Torchy As A Pa" by Sewell Ford
I do detest these old names vamped up.
"Diary in America, Series One" by Frederick Marryat (AKA Captain Marryat)
This is a poor subterfuge; could you not have vamped up something better?
"Rookwood" by William Harrison Ainsworth
Embroider'd Vamps for Shoes and Slippers 6.
"Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period" by Various
Oh, yes, if you like a vamp.
"The Cricket" by Marjorie Cooke
I gathered I had been guilty of falling for the Zerv equivalent of a vamp.
"Valley of the Croen" by Lee Tarbell
She mustn't imagine she can "vamp" my Kaikobad with impunity.
"The Prairie Mother" by Arthur Stringer
Like 11th row until you have reached the 3d narrowing on the vamp, then turn and work back across vamp, narrowing at the end, turn.
"Handbook of Wool Knitting and Crochet" by Anonymous
***

In poetry:

Wrestling with Victor Maclaglen
Young Sal didn’t care - she took chances
She once played a vamp, who’d to sleep in a camp
Out in Bengal with blokes with long lances.
"The Sobstuff Sister" by Billy Bennett
"You see that man?" — "Nay, leave me!" then I plead,
"I have fifteen miles to vamp across the lea,
And it grows dark, and I am weary-kneed:
I have said the third time; yes, that man I see!"
"At Lulworth Cove A Century Back" by Thomas Hardy
"On end for plunder, 'mid rain and thunder
That burst with the lull of our cannonade,
We vamped the streets in the stifling air—
Our hunger unsoothed, our thirst unstayed—
And ransacked the buildings there.
"San Sebastian" by Thomas Hardy

In news:

VAMPS AND TRAMPS By Camille Paglia 532 pages.
nytimes.com
Lisa Dierbeck traces her evolution from vamp to veteran.
oprah.com
"LYPSINKA THE BOXED SET" Camp and vamp.
nytimes.com
At Vamp Records, Business Thrives on "Endangered" Media.
eastbayexpress.com
Kristen Stewart certainly knows how to vamp up a red carpet.
radaronline.com
'True Blood' Star Deborah Ann Woll: No Longer a Baby Vamp .
rollingstone.com
Local Guests Vamp For 'Breaking Dawn'.
monroenews.com
University of Georgia to vamp up tailgate cleanup.
cmmonline.com
Iggy Pop & Bethany Cosentino Vamp on 'Let's Boot and Rally'.
billboard.com
), move to a beachside town called Luna Bay and soon begin knocking heads and other body parts with a gang of meathead surfer vamps (the Poison look: definitely out).
sfbg.com
'True Blood' Star Deborah Ann Woll : No Longer a Baby Vamp.
rollingstone.com
The Volturi vamp and Harry Potter 's Bonnie Wright will soon say "I do".
usmagazine.com
Cam Newton's victory vamps are under fire.
foxcharlotte.com
At Vamp Records, Business Thrives on " Endangered " Media.
eastbayexpress.com
Vamp finale earns $5.6 mil.
variety.com
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In science:

VAMP for this set of parameterizations, calls an external matrix element generator and creates an unweighted Monte Carlo event generator.
O'Mega & WHIZARD: Monte Carlo Event Generator Generation For Future Colliders
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Related words