improvise

From French improviser; ultimately from Latin improvisus.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɪmpɹəvaɪz/

• Audio (US)

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improvise (third-person singular simple present improvises, present participle improvising, simple past and past participle improvised)

1. 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.

• fly by the seat of one's pants, play by ear, punt, think on one's feet, wing it

• improvisation
• improvisational
• improvisatory

• extemporaneous
• impromptu
• off the cuff

• IPA^(key): /ɛ̃.pʁɔ.viz/

• Audio

  (file)

improvise

1. inflection of improviser:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

improvise

1. inflection of improvisar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

imprōvīse

1. vocative masculine singular of imprōvīsus

• “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.

improvise

1. inflection of improvisar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

improvise

1. inflection of improvisar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative