To produce or render extemporaneous compositions, especially in verse or in music, without previous preparation; hence, to do anything offhand.
Word of the Day: Catachrestical
1. To compose, recite, or sing extemporaneously, especially in verse; to extemporize; also, to play upon an instrument, or to act, extemporaneously.
2. To bring about, arrange, or make, on a sudden, or without previous preparation.
3. To invent, or provide, offhand, or on the spur of the moment; as, he improvised a hammer out of a stone.
of Improvise
One who improvises.
Imagination Roget’s Thesaurus §515
N. imagination, originality, invention, fancy, inspiration, verve, warm imagination, heated imagination, excited imagination, sanguine imagination, ardent imagination, fiery imagination, boiling imagination, wild imagination, bold imagination, daring imagination, playful imagination, lively imagination, fertile imagination, fancy, "mind's eye", "such stuff as dreams are made of", ideality, idealism, romanticism, utopianism, castle-building, dreaming, phrensy, frenzy, ecstasy, extasy, calenture, reverie, trance, day dream, golden dream, somnambulism, conception, vorstellung, excogitation, "a fine frenzy", cloudland, dreamland, flight of fancy, fumes of fancy, "thick coming fancies", creation of the brain, coinage of the brain, imagery, conceit, maggot, figment, myth, dream, vision, shadow, chimera, phantasm, phantasy, fantasy, fancy, whim, whimsey, whimsy, vagary, rhapsody, romance, gest, geste, extravaganza, air drawn dagger, bugbear, nightmare, flying dutchman, great sea serpent, man in the moon, castle in the air, pipe dream, pie-in-the-sky, chateau en espagne, utopia, atlantis, happy valley, millennium, fairyland, land of prester john, kingdom of micomicon, work of fiction, arabian nights, le pot au lait, dream of alnashar, illusion, phantom, fata morgana, vapor, stretch of the imagination, mythogenesis, idealist, romanticist, visionary, mopus, romancer, dreamer, somnambulist, rhapsodist, castle-buildier, fanciful projector
V. imagine, fancy, conceive, idealize, realize, dream, dream of, dream up, "give to airy nothing a local habitation and a name", create, originate, devise, invent, coin, fabricate, improvise, strike out something new, set one's wits to work, strain one's invention, crack one's invention, rack one's brains, ransack one's brains, cudgel one's brains, excogitate, brainstorm, give play, give the reins, give a loose to the imagination, give fancy, indulge in reverie, visualize, envision, conjure up a vision, fancy oneself, represent oneself, picture, picture-oneself, figure to oneself, vorstellen, float in the mind, suggest itself
Adj. imagined, ben trovato, air drawn, airbuilt, imagining, v, imaginative, original, inventive, creative, fertile, romantic, high flown, flighty, extravagant, fanatic, enthusiastic, unrealistic, utopian, quixotic, ideal, unreal, in the clouds, in nubibus, unsubsantial, illusory, fabulous, legendary, mythical, mythic, mythological, chimerical, imaginary, visionary, notional, fancy, fanciful, fantastic, fantastical, whimsical, fairy, fairy-like, gestic
Phr. "a change came o'er the spirit of my dream", aegri somnia vana, dolphinum appingit sylvis in fluctibus aprum, "fancy light from fancy caught", "imagination rules the world", l'imagination gallope, le jugement ne va que le pas, musaeo contingens cuncta lepore, tous songes sont mensonges, wahrheil und dichtung
Impulse Roget’s Thesaurus §612
N. impulse, sudden thought, impromptu, improvisation, inspiration, flash, spurt, improvisatore, creature of impulse
V. flash on the mind, say what comes uppermost, improvise, extemporize
Adj. extemporaneous, impulsive, indeliberate, snap, improvised, improvisate, improvisatory, unpremeditated, unmeditated, improvise, unprompted, unguided, natural, unguarded, spontaneous, instinctive
Adv. extempore, extemporaneously, offhand, impromptu, a limproviste, improviso, on the spur of the moment, on the spur of the occasion
Nonpreparation Roget’s Thesaurus §674
N. non-preparation, absence of preparation, want of preparation, inculture|, inconcoction|, improvidence, immaturity, crudity, rawness, abortion, disqualification, nature, state of nature, virgin soil, unweeded garden, neglect, rough copy, germ, raw material, improvisation
V. be unprepared, want preparation, lack preparation, lie fallow, s'embarquer sans biscuits, live from hand to mouth, dismantle, undress, extemporize, improvise, ad lib
Adj. unprepared &c, without preparation, incomplete, rudimental, embryonic, abortive, immature, unripe, kachcha, raw, green, crude, coarse, rough cast, rough hewn, in the rough, unhewn, unformed, unfashioned, unwrought, unlabored, unblown, uncooked, unboiled, unconcocted, unpolished, unhatched, unfledged, unnurtured, unlicked, untaught, uneducated, uncultivated, untrained, untutored, undrilled, unexercised, deckle-edged, precocious, premature, undigested, indigested, unmellowed, unseasoned, unleavened, unrehearsed, unscripted, extemporaneous, improvised, spontaneous, ad lib, ad libitem, fallow, unsown, untilled, natural, in a state of nature, undressed, in dishabille, en deshabille, unqualified, disqualified, unfitted, ill-digested, unbegun, unready, unarranged, unorganized, unfurnished, unprovided, unequipped, untrimmed, out of gear, out of order, dismantled, shiftless, improvident, unthrifty, thriftless, thoughtless, unguarded, happy-go-lucky, caught napping, unpremeditated
Adv. extempore