improvise
verb (used with object)
to compose and perform or deliver without previous preparation; extemporize.
were improvising
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past progressiveof improvise.past progressive
Used to describe an ongoing action or continuous state that was happening at a specific time in the past.
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.
By 2014, tourists were improvising with items like scrunchies, ribbons and earphones.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 10, 2026
Having recognized perhaps that this wasn’t exactly a jazz crowd, André helpfully explained that he and the band were improvising in real time: “Everything we play every night, we make it up,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 18, 2024
They were improvising their dialogue — the father and son.
From Salon ● Apr. 30, 2022
"He'd tell us, then we'd try to re-stage that. While the actors were improvising, Neil would say, 'I think I did that and I said that.' And then we'd do those things."
From BBC ● Mar. 9, 2022
Before the Beethoven there had been a "Variation and Fugue on an original theme," in which Paderewski played his own music, really as if he were improvising it there and then.
From Plays, Acting and Music A Book Of Theory by Arthur Symons
