vamp

Etymology 1

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. Compare also Middle English vaum-peien (“(uncertain) to repair (footwear) with a new upper or vamp; to fabricate an upper or vamp”).

noun

1. 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; the analogous part of a stocking.
   Their dark brown shoes had hand-stitched vamps. 1976, Chaim Grade, translated by Curt Leviant, The Yeshiva, Indianapolis, Ind.: Bobbs-Merrill Company, page 164
2. Something added to give an old thing a new appearance.
3. Something patched up, pieced together, improvised, or refurbished.
4. (music) A repeated and often improvised accompaniment, usually consisting of one or two measures, often a single chord or simple chord progression, repeated as necessary, for example, to accommodate dialogue or to anticipate the entrance of a soloist.
   I would go even further and say that, once [Stephen] Sondheim had ceased to compose classical music with its nonspecific accompaniments, he began to explore how effectively a vamp can flesh out a character for the stage. He had little need to write distinctive vamps for his Williams [College] shows, but already in 1954—before the highly characteristic vamps in West Side Story—we see him growing in his ability to get under a character's skin through his accompaniment. 2005, Steve Swayne, “Pulling It Apart”, in How Sondheim Found His Sound, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, page 116
   On the mega-rave circuit, a pop hardcore sound gradually emerged, fusing the piano vamps and shrieking divas of 1989-era Italo house with Belgian hardcore's monster-riffs and Shut Up and Dance style breakbeats and rumblin' bass. 2012, Simon Reynolds, “’Ardcore, You Know the Score”, in Energy Flash: A Journey through Rave Music and Dance Culture, Berkeley, Calif.: Soft Skull Press, page 119
5. (by extension) An activity or speech intended to fill or stall for time.

verb

1. (transitive) To patch, repair, or refurbish.
2. (transitive) Often as vamp up: to fabricate or put together (something) from existing material, or by adding new material to something existing.
3. (transitive) To cobble together, to extemporize, to improvise.
   Two pence he had gotten by begging, that 's all; / One bought him a bruſh, and one a black ball; / […] / Thus vamp'd and accoutred, with clouts, ball, and bruſh, / He gallantly ventur'd his fortune to puſh; […] a. 1746, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Johnson, “A Vindication of the Libel: Or, A New Ballad, Written by a Shoe-boy, on an Attorney who was Formerly a Shoe-boy”, in The Works of the English Poets. With Prefaces, Biographical and Critical,[…], volumes XLIV (Containing Swift and Broome), London: Printed by T. Spilsbury and Son; for J[ames] Buckland,[…], published 1790, →OCLC, page 76
   [S]ome men, nay, even some monks and brothers of this very house, are so envious of my state and foes to my peace of mind, that whenever they see me more happy and fuller of hope than common, they vamp me up some story or conjure some spectrum to disquiet me and sadden me! 1844, [Charles MacFarlane], “Lord Hereward Goes to Get His Own”, in The Camp of Refuge. In Two Volumes, volume I, London: Charles Knight & Co., Ludgate Street, →OCLC, page 120
   1. (transitive, intransitive, music, specifically) To perform a vamp (“a repeated, often improvised accompaniment, for example, under dialogue or while waiting for a soloist to be ready”).
      The band played ceaselessly. Even when the other instruments were resting the pianist kept up his monotonous vamping, with a dreary furbelow for embellishment here and there, to which some few of the dancers continued to shuffle round the floor. 1954, Alexander Alderson, chapter 4, in The Subtle Minotaur, London: John Gifford[…], →OCLC, →OL, page 52
      [W]hen she Billie Holiday] finally emerged from her dressing room, she would take her time getting to the stage, stopping and greeting people and even having drinks at the bar while her accompanists vamped. 1994, Donald Clarke, “The War Years”, in Wishing on the Moon: The Life and Times of Billie Holiday, New York, N.Y.: Viking; republished as Billie Holiday: Wishing on the Moon, Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press, 2002, page 206
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 Superintendent and Foreman, →OCLC, page 56
5. (transitive, intransitive, now dialectal) To travel by foot; to walk.
6. (intransitive) To delay or stall for time, as for an audience.
   Keep vamping! Something’s wrong with the mic!
   She went out there to vamp since the speaker was late arriving.

Etymology 2

Clipping of vampire. From a character type developed first for silent film, notably for Theda Bara's role in the 1915 film A Fool There Was. The verb is derived from the noun.

noun

1. A flirtatious, seductive woman, especially one who exploits men by using their sexual desire for her.
   It is the vamp who has a sense of humor that can really hold a man. She laughs at him, even as she is seeking to allure him—and he adores it. 1919 June, Renee Van Dyke, “Interesting Paragraphs about the Players”, in Geo[rge] M. Downs, Jr., editor, The Photo-play World, volume 2, number 8, Philadelphia, Pa.: The Downs Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 59, column 3
   Well, her seclusion is considered suspicious. She annoys them by being good-looking and even what is called good style. And all the young men are warned against her as a vamp. 1936, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, “The Vampire of the Village”, in The Penguin Complete Father Brown, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, London: Penguin Books, published 1985, →OCLC, page 707
   […]strait-laced Sandy, played by Olivia Newton-John, transformed herself into a vamp to bag the man of her dreams January 2, 2021, Katie Hind, “Grease is 'racist, rapey, homophobic and slut-shaming' and should never be shown on TV again, say woke snowflakes”, in The Daily Mail
2. (informal) A vampire.
   The leader of the vampire cult (played by Ramon D'Salva) leads his cult of fellow vamps in an attack against some nasty werewolves. 1992, Robert Marrero, Dracula: The Vampire Legend on Film, 1st American edition, Key West, Fla.: Fantasma Books, page 20, column 2

verb

1. (transitive, intransitive) To seduce or exploit someone.
   We want a musical-comedy star to vamp a Senator or a member of the Cabinet; we want the protective tariff revised up or down because of an actress' whim; we want scarlet scandal in high life. And we are not likely to get them. 1926 November, Gilbert Seldes, “Exit the Poor Actor!: Out at Elbow No Longer, Our Players To-day are among America’s Most Prosperous Citizens”, in Arthur Hornblow, editor, Theatre Magazine, volume XLIV, number 308, New York, N.Y.: Theatre Magazine Company, →OCLC, page 58, column 4
   "People who lose all their charity generally lose all their logic," remarked Father Brown. "It's rather ridiculous to complain that she keeps to herself; and then accuse her of vamping the whole male population." 1936, G[ilbert] K[eith] Chesterton, “The Vampire of the Village”, in The Penguin Complete Father Brown, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, London: Penguin Books, published 1985, →OCLC, page 707
   She smiled again. Batted her lashes and laid down a few more mascara tracks. Vamping in order to maintain composure. 1990 October, Jonathan Kellerman, chapter 27, in Time Bomb, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, page 321
   She vamps this month on the cover of British Vogue, a portrait of artfully crafted provocation. 2021-05-04, Ruth La Ferla, “On That Bombshell Billie Eilish Cover for British Vogue”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
2. (fiction, transitive) To turn into a vampire.
   If I knew what I know now before I got vamped, I'd do the same thing. 2004, David Sosnowski, Vamped: A Novel, Simon and Schuster, page 277
   Astonishing how few peasants and regular people got vamped back in the olden days, when it wasn't regulated. 2012, Justine Larbalestier, Sarah Rees Brennan, Team Human, Harper Collins
   Nobody ever got the drop on Shades, not even when he was alive, and certainly not in the fifty years since he got vamped. 2017, Keith R. A. DeCandido, Blackout, Simon and Schuster

Etymology 3

Uncertain; possibly related to vamp (etymology 1, above): see the 2008 quotation.

noun

1. (US, slang) A volunteer firefighter.
   John Mackin is one of the old-timers of the new Department. He was a volunteer fireman as well, […] John Mackin was among the number of "old vamps" who made application to the first Board of Fire Commissioners for appointment in the Paid Department. 1892, “Companies of the Seventh District”, in Our Firemen: The Official History of the Brooklyn Fire Department, from the First Volunteer to the Latest Appointee. Compiled from the Records of the Department, Brooklyn, New York, N.Y.: [Brooklyn Fire Department], →OCLC, page 371
   The vamps had to carry their equipment to the fire on foot! 2000, “History of the Atlanta Fire Department”, in History of Service: Atlanta Fire Department Commemorative Yearbook, Paducah, Ky.: Turner Publishing Company, page 25, column 1
   Volunteer firemen are called vamps because they often went to fires on foot, vamp being an old English word for "walk." Syosset's first vamps responded quickly to fires and formed bucket brigades to extinguish them. 2008, John Delin, “The Vamps, Syosset’s Bravest”, in Syosset People and Places (Images of America), Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing, page 88