Forms: 3 vaumpe, 3, 5 uaumpe, 5 vawmpe; 4–5 wampe, 5 vampe, 6 vamppe, 7– vamp. [ad. AF. *vampé, *vanpé (Palsgrave uantpié), = OF. avanpié (12th c.; later F. avantpied), f. avan(t) before + pié foot. The final syllable is preserved in the variant VAMPEY.]
1. That part of hose or stockings that covers the foot and ankle; also, a short stocking, sock. Now dial.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 420. Ine sumer ȝe habbeð leaue uorto gon and sitten baruot, and hosen wiðuten uaumpez, and ligge ine ham hwoso likeð.
13[?]. Seuyn Sages (W.) 843. He dede his schon of-drawe, And karf his vaumpes, fot-hot, And wente him forht al barfot.
1378–9. Durham Acc. Rolls (Surtees), 587. Pro … j pare botarum et Wampes de Dubelsols.
c. 1425. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 654. Hec pedana, wampe.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 508/1. Vampe, of an hoose…, pedana.
a. 1562. G. Cavendish, Wolsey (1893), 223. Allthoughe … that our predecessors went uppon clothe right somptiously, we do entend … to goo a foote frome thence, without any suche glory, in the vamppes of my hosyn.
1676. Coles, Vamp, a sock.
[1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Vamps or Vampays, an odd kind of short Hose or Stockings that cover’d the Feet, and came up only to the Ancle, just above the Shooe.]
1880. in E. Cornw. Gloss.
2. The part of a boot or shoe covering the front of the foot; U.S., that part between the sole and the top in front of the ankle-seams.
1654. Gayton, Pleas. Notes, IV. iv. 192. Her Grace when she had victuall’d that grand Camp, Gave me a piece of Cheese tuff as a vamp.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 14/1. Of a Shooe:… the Vamp, is all the piece that covers the top of the foot.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Vamp, the Upper Leather of a Shoe.
1770. T. Hazard Son of Robt. (1893), 288. One pair of vamps for shoes.
1785. Belknap, in M. Cutler’s Life, etc. (1888), II. 234. This bathing vessel … is in the form of a slipper. He sits in the Heel, and his legs go under the Vamp.
1800. Mar. Edgeworth, Parent’s Assist. (1854), 347. The last-maker made a last for her, and over this Mary sewed the calico vamps tight.
1845. Whittier, Shoemakers, ii. Now shape the sole! now deftly curl The glossy vamp around it.
1885. Harper’s Mag., Jan., 280/1. The upper is found to consist,… in the case of a button boot, of a ‘vamp’ to cover the front part of the foot [etc.].
