Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (US) to vanish, to disappear, to leave.

1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 3: When this bed’s out, an that old grouch in the back room vamps. [Ibid.] 21: Move up, or vamp – see?
1913–14		Van Loan ‘Easy Picking’ Taking the Count 307: We better be ready to vamp on that midnight train.
1925		Gleason & Taber Is Zat So? I i: We vamps the club.
1970		Current Sl. V:2 14: Vamp, v. To leave.
2000		Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 vamp / vamped Definition: 1. to disappear [...] Example: 1. Yo dawg, I’m gonna vamp.

2. to walk (away).

1905		Little Falls Herald (MN) 31 Mar. 3/3: How to Operate the Shell Game with Profit [...] If the ‘gee’ springs a fat roll, tip the ollie a finif to vamp until the blow off.
1921		Broadway Brevities Dec 13/1: Two well-known Broadwayites had nothing better to do than to vamp down here.
1950		S. Murphy Stone Mad (1966) 140: I got a lift here an’ there for a few miles, but I vamped the most of it.

3. (US black) to sneak up on, prior to an assault.

1972

E. Folb Urban Black Argot 147: Vamp Someone to hit someone from behind; to sneak up on someone for the purpose of hitting them.