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ham up
Idioms and Phrases
Exaggerate or overdo, especially with extravagant emotion, as in Hamming up the eulogy was disgraceful, especially since he didn't even know the deceased . It is also put as ham it up , meaning âoveract,â as in She loves to ham it up in front of the class . This idiom probably alludes to the hamfat (lard) used to remove stage makeup, mentioned in the minstrel song, âThe Ham-Fat Man.â From this hamfatter came to mean âan inexpert and flamboyant actor,â and was in the late 1800s shortened to ham . The idiom here was first recorded in 1933.Example Sentences
The result moved West Ham up to 13th in the Premier League, one place above Manchester United who have won just three of their opening nine games.
âYou kind of ham up for the people in the audience. My performance never got better than when there was an audience there.â
âHam up your ham! Make your toikey poiky!â went another.
The result moves West Ham up to fifth in the table, above Arsenal on goal difference and two points behind Manchester United in fourth - however the Gunners have three games in hand on both.
This time the fabulous Taraji P. Henson gets ham up Miss Hannigan's solo "Little Girls," and Harry Connick Jr. plays the emotionally closed-off billionaire Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American HeritageŸ Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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