vamping

Verb

vamp (third-person singular simple present vamps, present participle vamping, simple past and past participle vamped)

1. (transitive) To patch, repair, or refurbish.
   • '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.'1860, R[alph] W[aldo] Emerson, “Essay IX. Illusions.”, in The Conduct of Life, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 284

   Synonyms:

   revamp, vamp up

2. (transitive) Often as vamp up: to fabricate or put together (something) from existing material, or by adding new material to something existing.
   • He has vamp'd an old speech, and the court to their sorrow, / Shall hear him harangue against Prior to morrow.1711 [December?] (date written), Jonathan Swift, “An Excellent New Song. Being the Intended Speech of a Famous Orator against Peace [i.e., Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham].”, in Thomas Sheridan...
3. (transitive) To cobble together, to extemporize, to improvise.
   • 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.1728, [Alexander Pope], “Book the First”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin; London: […] A. Dodd, →OCLC, page 13, lines 228–230
   1. (ambitransitive, specifically, transitive) To perform a vamp (“a repeated, often improvised accompaniment, for example, under dialogue or while waiting for a soloist to be ready”).
      • "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."1880, [George] Bernard Shaw, chapter I, in The Irrational Knot … Being the Second Novel of His Nonage, London: Archibald Constable & Co., published 1905, →OCLC, page 14
4. (transitive, shoemaking) To attach a vamp (to footwear).
   • The shoe is now ready to be vamped after the eyelets are put in.1899, [Charles B. Hatfield], “Cloth Quarters and Welt Shoes”, in Designing, Cutting and Grading Boot and Shoe Patterns: And Complete Manual for the Stitching Room. […], Boston, Mass.: Press of...
5. (ambitransitive, dialectal) To travel by foot; to walk.
   • Well, vamp on to Marlott, will 'ee, and order that carriage, and maybe I'll drive round and inspect the club.1891, Thomas Hardy, chapter I, in Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume I, London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC, phase the first (The...

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