ad|lib´ber

ad|lib «ad LIHB», verb, -libbed, -lib|bing, adjective, adverb, noun. Informal.

–v.i., v.t.

to make up as one goes along; improvise (words, music, or gestures not in a script or score); extemporize: »

The actor forgot some of his lines and had to adlib his part. The speaker adlibbed a pun.

–adj.

made up on the spot; extemporized; improvised: »

He wasn't much of a juggler, but his adlib comments to the audience made him popular (Newsweek).

–adv.

on the spur of the moment; by making up (words, music, etc.) as one goes along; freely: »

The orchestra played adlib. Arnold Toynbee writes his history, instead of dictating adlib on the tape (New Statesman).

–n.

music, words, or gestures made up as one goes along: »

John Ford, who was directing, let him flounder through a nervous adlib—no prompting (Saturday Evening Post).

╂[< ad lib(itum)]

–ad|lib´ber, noun.

ad lib,

1. without stint: »

The same range of curiosity takes in addiction to drugs, suicide…alcoholism and neuroses ad lib (London Times).

2. without restraint: »

The Greeks and Trojans dashed ad lib about the Plain of Troy, blown only by tailwinds of emotion (A. J. Liebling).

╂[< ad lib(itum)]

ad lib. or ad libit.,

Music. ad libitum.