improvise
See also: improvisé
English edit
Etymology edit
From French improviser; ultimately from Latin improvisus.
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
improvise (third-person singular simple present improvises, present participle improvising, simple past and past participle improvised)
- To make something up or invent it as one goes on; to proceed guided only by imagination, intuition, and guesswork rather than by a careful plan.
- He had no speech prepared, so he improvised.
- They improvised a simple shelter with branches and the rope they were carrying.
- She improvised a lovely solo.
- 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Another London Life”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 173:
- We have improvised the most charming party imaginable. The summer has come back by surprise. I own I wonder that June was not tired of us: still here is a day so sunny, that October does not know its own. The Duke of Wharton, Lord Hervey, and some two or three others, have designed a water-party in our honour.
Synonyms edit
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
to make something up as one goes on
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See also edit
French edit
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
improvise
- inflection of improviser:
Galician edit
Verb edit
improvise
- inflection of improvisar:
Latin edit
Adjective edit
imprōvīse
References edit
- “improvise”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- improvise in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
Portuguese edit
Verb edit
improvise
- inflection of improvisar:
Spanish edit
Verb edit
improvise
- inflection of improvisar: