extemporize
English
Alternative forms
- extemporise (mostly Commonwealth)
Verb
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- (intransitive) To do something, particularly to perform or speak, without prior planning or thought; to act in an impromptu manner; to improvise.
- 1881, George MacDonald, chapter 35, in Mary Marston:
- "Will you please tell me whose music you have been playing?" . . .
- "It's nobody's, miss."
- "Do you mean you have been extemporizing all this time?"
- 2009 March 5, Peter Baker, "The (very) scripted president," New York Times (retrieved 8 Nov 2011):
- But while some of his predecessors liked to extemporize, Obama prefers the message to be just so.
- (transitive) To do, create, improvise, adapt, or devise in an impromptu or spontaneous manner.
- 1860, Nathaniel Hawthorne, chapter 10, in The Marble Faun:
- As the music came fresher on their ears, they danced to its cadence, extemporizing new steps and attitudes.
- 1879, Samuel Butler, chapter 5, in Evolution, Old & New:
- The small jelly-speck, which we call the amoeba, has no organs save what it can extemporize as occasion arises.
- 1906, Thomas Hardy, The Dynasts, Part Second, Act Third:
- The wine runs into pitchers, washing-basins, shards, chamber- vessels, and other extemporized receptacles.
- 2003 Aug. 25, Emily Eakin, "How King Shaped The Dream," New York Times (retrieved 8 Nov 2011):
- His most famous words — "I have a dream" — were extemporized.
Synonyms
- (intransitive): improvise, think on one's feet
- (transitive): devise, improvise
Related terms
Terms etymologically related to extemporize
Translations
to act, particularly to perform or speak, without prior planning or thought
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