vamp
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A seductive woman who uses her sex appeal to exploit men.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
vampIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈvæmp
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A seductive woman who uses her sex appeal to exploit men
A flirtatious, seductive woman, especially one who exploits men by using their sexual desire for her; femme fatale.
by extension
An activity or speech intended to fill or stall for time.
Something patched up, pieced together, improvised, or refurbished.
Something added to give an old thing a new appearance.
Piece of leather forming the front part of the upper of a shoe
verb
transitiveintransitive
To seduce or exploit someone.
transitive
Often as vamp up: to fabricate or put together (something) from existing material, or by adding new material to something existing.
transitive
To patch, repair, or refurbish.
transitive
To cobble together, to extemporize, to improvise.
intransitive
To delay or stall for time, as for an audience.
Provide (a shoe) with a new vamp
Word at a Glance
- Frequency
- Uncommon
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A seductive woman who uses her sex appeal to exploit men
Used this way, vamp is a reasonably familiar word with a faintly unfavourable edge. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Slightly negative
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Critical or judgemental
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use vamp
- “Vamp up an excuse for not attending the meeting.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.