1.1Produce or make (something) from whatever is available.
‘I improvised a costume for myself out of an old blue dress’
‘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.’
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
Early 19th century (earlier (late 18th century) as improvisation): from French improviser or its source, Italian improvvisare, from improvviso ‘extempore’, from Latin improvisus ‘unforeseen’, based on provisus, past participle of providere ‘make preparation for’.
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