Short for the Latin “ ad libitum†meaning “freely.†In theatre it means i mprovising lines, though the audience generally shouldn’t know unless an actor is deliberately responding "ad lib" to a comment picked up from the audience. Of course, actors may simply ad lib because they’ve forgotten their lines. Oh, the joys of live performance
The presence of mind by an actor to improvise when; 1) another actor fails to enter on cue 2) the normal progress of the play is disturbed 3) lines are forgotten 4) It may also be a bad habit developed by some actors whereby unnecessary 'gags' are introduced into the dialogue.
a line of dialogue improvised by an actor during a performance; can be either unscripted or deliberate; improvisation consists of ad-libbed dialogue (and action) that is invented or created by the performer
A line improvised by an actor during a performance, usually because the actor has forgotten his or her line or because something unscripted has occurred onstage. Sometimes an author directs the actors to ad lib, as in crowd scenes during which individual words cannot be distinguished by the audience.
without advance preparation; "he spoke ad lib"
An unscripted remark or action said or done on the spur of the moment.
Improvised lines, phrases, or even action bits used by an actor in spontaneous reaction to the given situation of a scene.
pharmaceutical abbreviation, as much as wanted (ad libitum)
(semi-) spontaneous, unscripted talking. “ The host can ad lib about the convention if we need to fill extra time.
Dialogue in which the characters or actors make up what they say in real time on the movie set or on stage. From the Latin ad libitum, "in accordance with desire."