Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to play the seductress.

[1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 63: Rot me! but priams sons of whores, / That swallow maidenheads by scores, / Shan’t vamp it thus].
1921		R. Lardner ‘A Frame-Up’ Coll. Short Stories (1941) 425: Why don’t you hire some chorus doll to vamp and have her tell him she’s his.
1930		R. Whitfield Green Ice (1988) 185: The girl held a gun on me and tried to vamp me into telling her about the emeralds.
1946		R.L. Bellem ‘Latin Blood’ Speed Detective Aug. 🌐 You came here to Lanza’s hotel suite, vamped him with a love scene.
1953		R. Garland Heart in Exile 88: During the party she tried to vamp Julian.
1984		J. Ellroy Blood on the Moon 61: [of a homosexual encounter] Lloyd couldn't tell if the man was being pleasant or trying to vamp him; homosexuals were hard to read.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 93: She vamped fourteen L.A. traffic cops.

2. (US) of man, to pick up a woman.

1919		A. Baer Two and Three 17 Mar. [synd. col.] When a mug tries to vamp a girl on Broadway [...] she knocks him cuckoo.
1932		J. Rodgers ‘Blue Yodel No. 10’ 🎵 I ain’t no cheating man, don’t try to vamp no girl.

3. in fig. use of sense 1, to lure in, to entrance.

2021

J. Ellroy Widespread Panic 4: We voyeur-vamped America and got her hooked on the shivering shit.