verb

• 1Create and perform (music, drama, or verse) spontaneously or without preparation.

  ‘he invited actors to improvise dialogue’

  More example sentences

  • ‘he was improvising to a backing of guitar chords’
  • ‘At many of these events, advanced students spontaneously improvise solos or duets based on a theme given by audience members.’
  • ‘Clark says audiences are more open to improvised music than people think.’
  • ‘Sometimes improvised music seems like a selfish display of skills.’
  • ‘He improvised the music from the feelings he had and then he reintroduced the text.’
  • ‘We continued to let the music swell and move, and began to improvise, creating our own music.’
  • ‘The dialogue was improvised entirely by the actors, and the cinematography is entirely static.’
  • ‘In freely improvised music, its roots are in occasion rather than place.’
  • ‘The dialogue was mostly improvised yet feels natural and unforced.’
  • ‘Working with these gags in mind, the performers still retain the freedom to completely improvise the dialogue.’
  • ‘What are the pros and cons of having the cast improvising around the scripts?’
  • ‘A very rough treatment was written, but most of the film was improvised on the spot.’
  • ‘He was encouraged to improvise around a script.’
  • ‘The studios have pianists and sometimes drummers or other musicians who improvise as the dancers dance.’
  • ‘Was there a script, or was the plot mostly improvised during shooting?’
  • ‘Oh well, perhaps some ballets possibly do look as though the dancers were gallantly improvising.’
  • ‘Seemingly improvised banter is shared across a table as Jarmusch urges us to sit back and watch the magic unfold.’
  • ‘How much of the plot and the scenes were improvised by the ensemble?’
  • ‘Cassavetes also sometimes includes partially improvised scenes in the finished film.’
  • ‘Poulenc composed essentially by improvising at the piano.’
  • ‘The teacher improvises at the piano during the games, but suggestions are given for compositions that could be played.’

  Synonyms

  extemporize, ad lib, speak impromptu, make it up as one goes along, think on one's feet, take it as it comes

  impromptu, improvisational, improvisatory, unrehearsed, unprepared, unscripted, extempore, extemporized, spontaneous, unstudied, unpremeditated, unarranged, unplanned, on the spot, ad lib

  View synonyms

  1. 1.1Produce or make (something) from whatever is available.
     ‘I improvised a costume for myself out of an old blue dress’
     More example sentences

     • ‘Their son, who is five, is able to improvise a whole range of superheroes from whatever is lying around the house.’
     • ‘Overtaken by the darkness, he had thrown his force into some of the houses and improvised a sort of fort.’
     • ‘So Bob improvised his meals based off whatever he could find being cooked on the line, or stored in the icebox.’
     • ‘A tiny girl outdid them all by improvising a skirt from her brawny boyfriend's wind-cheater, with the collar zipped smugly round her waist and the sleeves turned inwards, the cuffs dangling well below the hemline!’
     • ‘They're living without power so they're lighting candles at night, they're smoking, some are improvising their cooking.’
     • ‘In most cases, soldiers improvised solutions to keep the offensive rolling.’
     • ‘At other locations protesters were seen digging up cobbles to throw at police and several tried to pull down fences to make improvised weapons.’
     • ‘People improvised large-scale meals out of food that might otherwise have spoiled and fed entire streets.’
     • ‘In Kindamba he improvised a splint from palm branches and asked a carpenter to make another, around which tarpaulin would be wrapped.’
     • ‘So many American troops and others have been killed by those improvised explosive devices.’
     • ‘To go with it, I decided to use up a couple of nectarines that were laying around, and I improvised a little tart.’
     • ‘There will surely be more of these improvised intra-European coalitions of the willing.’
     • ‘This was somewhat unexpected so I improvised a torch from my shirt and a tree branch.’
     • ‘If the ground is frozen solid, you improvise ways to drive a tent stake deep enough…’
     • ‘The neighborhood carpenter would improvise a coffin with wood that sometimes came off of somebody's wall or chicken coup.’
     • ‘On the streets youngsters improvise toys, carving tin cars from US AID containers, or play skittles with empty shells cases.’
     • ‘Stopped by a police officer, Page had to improvise an accent.’
     • ‘Jack knows how to improvise solutions from the materials at hand, although he's a better engineer than he is a social psychologist.’
     • ‘The insurgents who were there have vanished, leaving improvised explosive devices buried everywhere.’
     • ‘And thus ends my hastily improvised day, which I couldn't have planned any better.’
     Synonyms

     contrive, devise, throw together, cobble together, concoct, rig, jury-rig, put together

     makeshift, thrown together, cobbled together, devised, rigged, jury-rigged, rough and ready, make-do, emergency, stopgap, temporary, short-term, pro tem

     View synonyms