hammy
1 Americanadjective
adjective
-
(of an actor) overacting or tending to overact
-
(of a play, performance, etc) overacted or exaggerated
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of hammy1
First recorded in 1860–65; ham 1 + -y 1
Origin of hammy2
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
But such compromises do not exist in the extreme and often hammy world of Mr. Tallent’s fiction.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026
Exactly 86 minutes after Wood was cleared following concerns over a hamstring injury, Australia's Josh Hazlewood was ruled out of Friday's first Test with a dodgy hammy of his own.
From BBC ● Nov. 15, 2025
Austin’s lush mustache and hammy Southern drawl aren’t quite in sync with the tone; Rudd seems stuck in the Ferrell version of the film.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 9, 2025
Second, she was wildly overcoached, delivering a hammy performance that sounded nothing like her normal speaking voice.
From Slate ● Mar. 9, 2024
His hammy pink face had taken on that dangerous scowl which only appeared when he was extremely cross and somebody was for the high-jump.
From "Boy: Tales of a Childhood" by Roald Dahl
Numerous outtakes on view in vitrines here, showing the Superstars in various hammier combinations, reaffirms the point: Each portrait is a joint confection of model and photographer, whose “truth” is up for constant negotiation.
From New York Times ● Feb. 2, 2023
As is always the case, being in front of a crowd makes me superthirsty for laughs, so I am a little hammier than I ought to be and steal focus a lot.
From Slate ● Jun. 12, 2015
And then I saw the show and it looked like the worst, hammiest acting in history!
From Salon ● Sep. 15, 2018
He was drawn to the edge of the cliff on screen as well as off, with demented showboating to rival Pacino at his hammiest in Léon and Air Force One.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 30, 2017
This is true even of Mr. Sisto’s MacKaye, who is a droll presence, but comes across as oddly muted even at his cloak-flinging hammiest.
From New York Times ● Mar. 13, 2017
Collins gave up songwriting long ago but continues to rake in gazillions, regurgitating hooky hits with the hammiest of stage shtick.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 20, 2015
Perrineau is the hammiest actor in an already hammy cast, but he’s the only character who feels like he has a coherent long-term agenda, even if we don’t know if it will pan out.
From The Verge ● Jul. 25, 2014
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
