From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishimproviseim‧pro‧vise /ˈɪmprəvaɪz/ verb [intransitive, transitive] 1 DOto do something without any preparation, because you are forced to do this by unexpected events I forgot to bring my notes, so I had to improvise.2 MAKEto make something by using whatever you can find because you do not have the equipment or materials that you need There were no nappies, so we had to improvise with what we could find. Annie improvised a sandpit for the children.3 PERFORMto invent music, words, a statement etc from your imagination, rather than planning or preparing it first I just started playing, and the other guys started improvising around me. an improvised sketch —improvisation /ˌɪmprəvaɪˈzeɪʃən $ ɪmˌprɑːvə-/ noun [countable, uncountable]→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
improvise• Use these recipes as a guideline, but feel free to improvise!• You can't play jazz unless you can improvise.• Throughout it all, an expanding group of change leaders at McKinsey continued to improvise.• You had to sing; you had to dance; you had to play an instrument; you had to improvise.• I left my lesson plans at home, so I'll have to improvise.• It was difficult to believe that the whole sketch was improvised.• Jazz musicians are good at improvising.• Mike improvised a little farewell song at the end of the evening.• I improvised a sling for his arm out of a strip of cloth.• They had improvised an alarm, using string and empty cans.• If you've improvised and made a tie yourself, undo it and retie.• Modern jazz players like to take a theme and improvise around it.• Kids were improvising games with a ball and some string.• Robin Williams likes to improvise his comedy.• Keynes improvised the answers, and changed them as he went along.• Solov had given Holder sixteen bars of music to improvise to, and the dancer grabbed at the opportunity.• The reality of improvising your way through change demands revising specific strategies over time.Origin improvise (1800-1900) French improviser, from Italian, from improvviso “sudden” 