improvise
Americanverb (used with object)
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to compose and perform or deliver without previous preparation; extemporize.
to improvise an acceptance speech.
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to compose, play, recite, or sing (verse, music, etc.) on the spur of the moment.
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to make, provide, or arrange from whatever materials are readily available.
We improvised a dinner from yesterday's leftovers.
verb (used without object)
verb
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to perform or make quickly from materials and sources available, without previous planning
-
to perform (a poem, play, piece of music, etc), composing as one goes along
Other Word Forms
- improviser noun
- improvisor noun
Etymology
Origin of improvise
First recorded in 1820–30; from French improviser, or its source, Italian improvisare (later improvvisare ), verbal derivative of improviso “improvised,” from Latin imprōvīsus, equivalent to im- “un-” + prōvīsus, past participle of prōvidēre “to see beforehand, prepare, provide for (a future circumstance)”; im- 2, proviso
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The film lives in its details — frost creeping along the walls, carbon dioxide levels rising, improvised fixes worked out step by step — as each small success only leads to the next crisis.
From Los Angeles Times
You can adjust and improvise in immersive theater.
From Los Angeles Times
One kind and patient spectator conscripted to play the school counselor had to remove her shoe to improvise a sock puppet, one of the tools of her empathetic practice.
From Los Angeles Times
The improvised prison pens—everything from old army barracks and training camps, barns and fairgrounds, derelict cotton warehouses and tobacco factories—were emptied out.
“We would improvise a lot, so we always had the rules as a guidance.”
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
