View synonyms for hambone

hambone

[ ham-bohn ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

Theater.
1. (especially in minstrel shows and vaudeville) a performer made up in blackface and using a stereotyped Black dialect.
2. an unskilled, overeager, or artless actor, or any performer who overacts.
juba.
Bowling Slang. four consecutive strikes.
Usually ham bone. a bone in a hog's ham:
We always use the leftover ham bone to make pea soup.

Origin of hambone¹

First recorded in 1850–55; ham ¹ + bone; ham ²

That one made me laugh because I felt like such a hambone pantomiming.

Beck is an entertainer, and he does his job with hambone energy and handfuls of self-mockery.

They'd rather fight en a yaller dawg likes fo' to worry a hambone.

Reynolds did as directed and Hambone ducked for cover and the wagon stood stock still.

Our glee was positively fiendish next day when watching Hambone wriggling uneasily in his clothes at parade.

Accompanying Hambone were Snow and Reynolds of our section, they sitting in the back end of the wagon.

A minute or two elapsed and no explosion taking place, Hambone rejoined the wagon and the party proceeded.

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