v. [f. EXTEMPOR-E adv. + -IZE.]
1. intr. To speak extempore. Also, to compose and perform music off-hand; to improvise.
a. 1717. [see EXTEMPORIZING vbl. sb.].
1775. in Ash.
1883. A. Phelps, Eng. Style, vii. 109. Preachers are prone either to extemporize always or to write always.
1887. Talmage, in Pall Mall Gaz., 30 Dec., 13/2. I resolved on a certain Sunday night to extemporize.
2. trans. To compose on the spur of the moment; to compose and utter off-hand.
1817. Byron, Beppo, xxxiii. He … could himself extemporise some stanzas.
1841. Miall, Nonconf., I. 12. The plain, simple Scottish writer, who … ex-temporised the contents of this book.
1880. ‘Vernon Lee,’ Stud. Italy, v. 238. Their successors were obliged to leave half of the dialogue to be extemporised.
3. To produce or get up on the spur of the moment; to invent for the occasion.
1858. Times, 9 Nov., 6/5. Gunners … cannot be extemporized. Ibid. (1864), 24 Dec., 8/5. The Federals … extemporized a Budget exactly as they extemporized an army.
1874. Carpenter, Ment. Phys., I. ii. § 43. The Amœba … when it has met with a nutritive particle, extemporises a stomach for its reception.
1878. Bosw. Smith, Carthage, 197. The canoes which he had extemporised.
1880. L. Stephen, Pope, vii. 159. It was his [Bolingbroke’s] special glory to extemporize statesmanship without sacrificing pleasure.
Hence Extemporized ppl. a., in senses of the verb. Extemporizer, one who speaks or composes extempore. Extemporizing vbl. sb., also attrib. and ppl. a.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng., I. 61. It was an extemporized allegory.
1868. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), II. viii. 211. The extemporized jurisprudence of a later age.
1812. Religionism, 62. Th’extemporizer’s art who knows, Than pray had rather hear him blow his nose.
1852. Meanderings of Mem., I. 47. Matter to sustain The staggering extemporizer’s pain.
1692. South, Serm. (1697), II. 159. The Extemporizing faculty is never more out of its Element, than in the Pulpit.
1644. Milton, Areop. (Arb.), 56. The cursory eyes of a temporizing and extemporizing licenser.
1879. Grove, Dict. Mus., I. 499/2. Extemporizing machine. An invention for printing the notes of an extemporaneous performance, by means of mechanism connected with the keyboard of a pianoforte or organ.
