Added 3 October 2026
vamp
/væmp/ noun
noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about vamp at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
- The part of hose or stockings which covers the foot and ankle; a sock or short stocking. .mw-parser-output .defdate{font-size:smaller}
- 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.
- Something added to give an old thing a new appearance.
verb
- To patch, repair, or refurbish.
- Often as vamp up: to fabricate or put together (something) from existing material, or by adding new material to something existing.
- To cobble together, to extemporize, to improvise. To perform a vamp (“a repeated, often improvised accompaniment, for example, under dialogue or while waiting for a soloist to be ready”).
noun
verb
Origin
From Middle English vaumpe, vaum-pei, vampe (“covering for the foot, perhaps a slipper or understocking; upper of a boot or shoe”), or from Anglo-Norman vampe, *vaumpé (“part of a stocking covering the top of the foot”), from Old French avantpied, avantpiet, variants of avantpié, from avant (“in front”) + pié (“foot”). Noun senses 2 and 3 (“a patch; something patched up or improvised”) appear to have been extended from sense 1 (“top part of a boot or shoe”). Sense 4 (“repeated and often improvised musical accompaniment”) was probably derived from sense 3, and sense 5 (“activity to fill or stall for time”) from sense 4. The verb senses were derived from the noun.
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)