improvise
pronunciation
How to pronounce improvise in British English:
UK [ˈɪmprəvaɪz]
How to pronounce improvise in American English:
US [ˈɪmprəvaɪz]
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- Verb:
- perform without preparation
- manage in a makeshift way; do with whatever is at hand
Word Origin
- improvise
- improvise: [19] Etymologically, if you improvise something, it is because it has not been ‘provided’ for in advance. The word comes via French improviser from the Italian adjective improvviso ‘extempore’, a descendant of Latin imprōvīsus ‘unforeseen’. This in turn was formed from the negative prefix in- and the past participle of prōvīdere ‘foresee’ (source of English provide).The earliest recorded use of the verb in English is by Benjamin Disraeli in Vivian Grey 1826: ‘He possessed also the singular faculty of being able to improvise quotations’. (The closely related improvident ‘not providing for the future’ [16] preserves even more closely the sense of its Latin original.)=> provide
- improvise (v.)
- 1826, back-formation from improvisation, or else from French improviser (17c.), from Italian improvisare "to sing or speak extempore," from improviso, from Latin improvisus "unforeseen, unexpected" (see improvisation). Or possibly a back-formation from improvisation. Related: Improvised; improvising.
Example
- 1. Trained music therapists helped each participant to improvise music using percussion instruments and drums .
- 2. I looked at him , puzzled , and then realized that he was trying to improvise a scene .
- 3. Because we had so little money , we had to improvise mutual support systems .
- 4. Mr. wang has likened architecture to creating a chinese garden : it requires the ability to be flexible , to improvise and to solve unexpected problems .
- 5. As boo says in her author 's note , the slum dwellers she came to know are " neither mythic nor pathetic , " but rather distinguished by their ability to improvise .