different between amp vs vamp

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: ?mp, IPA^(key): /æmp/
• Rhymes: -æmp

Noun

amp (countable and uncountable, plural amps)

1. (colloquial, countable) Short for ampere.
2. (colloquial, countable) Short for amplifier.
3. (colloquial, countable) Short for ampoule.
   • 1963, Washington (State). Legislature. Joint Committee on Governmental Cooperation, Report and Recommendations (page 45)

     The physician had included a note which said: "Dear Miss ........, I could not get the name of your friend over the phone so I am sending two prescriptions for Methedrine amps and one prescription for Drinalfa ten cc vials.

4. (colloquial, countable) Short for amputee.
5. (colloquial, uncountable) Short for ampicillin.

Verb

amp (third-person singular simple present amps, present participle amping, simple past and past participle amped)

1. (colloquial, usually with up) To amplify.

   He asked the disk jockey to amp it up.

2. (colloquial, usually with up) To excite.
   • 2012, Natalie Anderson, First Time Lucky? (page 78)

     In the distance, the music thumped, amping the crowd higher.

   • 2013, Hansi Lo Wang, Morning Edition, National Public Radio

     And it's raining, a little bit of drizzle, but the crowd is amped up and ready for a big event today.

3. (colloquial, usually with up) To intensify or increase.
   • 2003 CMJ New Music Monthly (number 115, page 42)

     Amping the Justin Timberlake cameos and revving up Jiggytron 5000, these Peas want to be on Middle America's fickle plate — losing little dread-whippin' imaginativeness in the wizzash.

   • 2014, Andy Paul, Amp Up Your Sales, AMACOM Books

Derived terms

• amp up

Translations

References

Anagrams

• APM, MAP, MPA, PAM, Pam, map, p.m.a., pam, pma

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch ambt, from Middle Dutch ampt, from Middle High German ambet, ambt (whence modern German Amt), from Old High German ambahti, from Proto-Germanic *ambahtaz, from Gaulish ambaxtos, from Proto-Celtic *ambaxtos.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /amp/

Noun

amp (plural ampte)

1. An official position, a function, an office, a post.

Derived terms

• amptelik

Related terms

• ambag

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /væmp/
• Rhymes: -æmp

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

vamp (plural vamps)

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. [from c. 1225]
3. Something added to give an old thing a new appearance.

   Synonym: patch

4. Something patched up, pieced together, improvised, or refurbished.
5. (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. [from c. 1789]
6. (by extension) An activity or speech intended to fill or stall for time.

Translations

Verb

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

2. (transitive) To patch, repair, or refurbish.
3. (transitive) Often as vamp up: to fabricate or put together (something) from existing material, or by adding new material to something existing.
   • 1711, Jonathan Swift, An Excellent New Song

     He has vamp'd an old speech, and the court to their sorrow, / Shall hear him harangue against Prior to morrow.
4. (transitive) To cobble together, to extemporize, to improvise.
   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”).
5. (transitive, shoemaking) To attach a vamp (to footwear).
6. (transitive, intransitive, now dialectal) To travel by foot; to walk.
7. (intransitive) To delay or stall for time, as for an audience.

Derived terms

• new-vamp, revamp
• vamp up
• vamper

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

vamp (plural vamps)

2. A flirtatious, seductive woman, especially one who exploits men by using their sexual desire for her. [from c. 1915]

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:vamp
3. (informal) A vampire.

Derived terms

• vampish

Translations

Verb

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

1. (transitive) To seduce or exploit someone.

Translations

Etymology 3

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

Noun

vamp (plural vamps)

1. (US, slang) A volunteer firefighter.

Translations

References

Further reading

• vamp (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English vamp.

Noun

vamp f (invariable)

1. vamp (flirtatious woman)

Spanish

Noun

vamp m or f (plural vamps)

1. vamp