hambone

American  

[ham-bohn] / ˈhæmˌboʊn /

noun

1. 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.

2. juba.

3. Bowling Slang. four consecutive strikes.

4. Usually ham bone a bone in a hog's ham.

   We always use the leftover ham bone to make pea soup.

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Etymology

Origin of hambone

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

Example Sentences

For Norvell, it is also important to recognize that African-Americans in the northeast forged traditions of their own, though not as well known as Southern traditions such as banjo playing and juba, a dance style also called hambone.

From Reuters • May 29, 2015

And that they’re willing to put up with our hambone antics as we try to fill them in.

From Slate • May 29, 2014

This is an immense improvement, to my taste, over Affleck’s hambone stud muffin turn in “The Town,” which curdled an otherwise capable crime-romance.

From Salon • Oct. 11, 2012

The play's "rude mechanicals" with delusions of thespic grandeur — led by Todd Jefferson Moore, hilarious as the lovable hambone Bottom, and Kevin McKeon as a doltish Peter Quince — keep the laughs flowing.

From Seattle Times • Oct. 24, 2011

In the dance pavilion at West Port Jensen the night lanterns were kindled; tourists from Seattle poured forth from the excursion steamers to perform the Svenska polka, the Rhinelander, the schottische, and the hambone.

From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson

Related Words

• artist
• character
• clown
• comedian
• entertainer
• performer
• player
• star
• villain