Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A woman who aggressively seduces men, sometimes to exploit or manipulate them.
  • intransitive verb To seduce or exploit (someone) in the manner of a vamp.
  • intransitive verb To behave like a vamp.
  • noun The upper part of a boot or shoe covering the instep and sometimes extending over the toe.
  • noun Something patched up or refurbished.
  • noun Something rehashed, as a book based on old material.
  • noun Music One or more bars of music repeated indefinitely as an accompaniment.
  • intransitive verb To provide (a shoe) with a new vamp.
  • intransitive verb To patch up (something old); refurbish.
  • intransitive verb To put together; fabricate or improvise.
  • intransitive verb To play (a vamp).
  • intransitive verb To improvise (a melody) over a vamp.
  • intransitive verb To play a vamp.
  • intransitive verb To improvise over a vamp.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun 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.
  • noun Any piece or patch intended to give an old thing a new appearance; a piece added for appearance' sake. See the verb.
  • noun 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.
  • noun In music, an improvised accompaniment.
  • To travel; proceed; move forward.
  • To furnish with a new vamp or upper leather, as a shoe or boot.
  • To repair; furbish up; give an appearance of newness to.
  • In music, to improvise an accompaniment to.
  • To improvise musical accompaniments.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • verb To seduce (a man) sexually for purpose of exploitation.
  • noun The part of a boot or shoe above the sole and welt, and in front of the ankle seam; an upper.
  • noun Any piece added to an old thing to give it a new appearance. See Vamp, v. t.
  • noun (Music) A usually improvized Jazz accompaniment, consisting of simple chords in sucession.
  • transitive verb 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.
  • transitive verb To create with little skill; to concoct; to invent; -- usually with up.
  • noun A woman who seduces men with her charm and wiles, in order to exploit them.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To advance; to travel.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To seduce or exploit someone.
  • noun Something added to give an old thing a new appearance; a patch.
  • noun Something patched up, pieced together, improvised, or refurbished.
  • noun An activity or speech intended to fill time or stall.
  • noun A volunteer fire fighter.
  • verb shoemaking To attach a vamp.
  • verb To walk.
  • verb To patch, repair, or refurbish.
  • verb to put together, improvise, or fabricate.
  • verb music To perform a vamp; to perform a repeated, often improvised accompaniment, e.g. under dialogue or awaiting the readiness of a soloist.
  • verb To stall or delay, as for an audience.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an improvised musical accompaniment
  • verb act seductively with (someone)
  • verb make up
  • verb provide (a shoe) with a new vamp
  • verb piece (something old) with a new part
  • noun piece of leather forming the front part of the upper of a shoe

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Short for vampire.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English vampe, sock, from Old French avanpie : avaunt, before; see vanguard + pie, foot (from Latin pēs; see ped- in Indo-European roots).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Short for vampire. From a character type developed first for silent film, notably for Theda Bara's role in the 1915 film A Fool There Was.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Anglo-Norman *vaumpé (“part of a stocking that covers the top of the foot”), from Old French avantpié, from avant ("in front") + pié ("foot"). See pied ("foot").

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Examples

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  • "Come on, let yourself be vamped" said a girl to Hastings in one of the Poirot novels

    April 11, 2009

  • as in revamp

    February 13, 2010

  • "4. In music, an improvised accompaniment.

    . . . .

    7. In music, to improvise an accompaniment to.

    8. To improvise musical accompaniments."

    --Century Dictionary

    October 5, 2010