Meanings
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1
noun
a short, repeated, often improvised musical accompaniment or chord progression
The pianist repeated a quiet vamp while waiting for the singer's entrance.
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2
verb
often as vamp up: to patch, refurbish, or fabricate something by reworking old or existing material
The forger vamped up a convincing fossil from unrelated fragments.
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3
noun
the front part of a shoe's upper, covering the toes and instep
The cobbler replaced the cracked leather vamp without changing the sole.
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4
noun
dated: a seductive woman, stereotypically one who exploits men
The silent film cast her as a glamorous vamp who deceives the hero.
Thesaurus
Etymology
The shoe noun comes through Middle English and Anglo-Norman vampe from Old French avantpié ("front of the foot"), from avant ("in front") + pié ("foot"). Replacing a shoe's vamp led to the senses "patch up" and "improvise," then to the musical noun. The seductive-woman sense is a later shortening of vampire, popularized by early cinema.