overact
Americanverb (used with or without object)
-
overacts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
overacted,
past participle, past
-
overacting
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
overactsimple
-
overactssimple
-
have overactedperfect
-
has overactedperfect
-
am overactingprogressive
-
are overactingprogressive
-
is overactingprogressive
-
have been overactingperfect progressive
-
has been overactingperfect progressive
Past
-
overactedsimple
-
had overactedperfect
-
was overactingprogressive
-
were overactingprogressive
-
had been overactingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of overact
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:
“My reaction is not to overact but I didn’t like it,” Del Rio said.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 17, 2022
RuPaul’s Drag Race The contestants must overact in holiday movie parodies in this new episode.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 21, 2021
She remembers turning up at castings as recently as five years ago, recording self-tapes, running lines with her mother, who could be counted on to overact.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 13, 2019
Some of the performers in smaller roles are less artful than the cast’s standouts, and one or two overact.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 19, 2016
They can perversely ignore it, though they will cripple themselves in the process, will overact their part and come to grief.
From Public Opinion by Walter Lippmann
She overacts, sings her way through conversations, puts on affected accents, responds to normal requests in a histrionic manner, and generally treats our home like a little Broadway theatre.
From Slate ● Feb. 26, 2021
In support, Toni Collette overacts, deliberately and effectively, while David Thewlis makes each verision of the character he plays interesting.
From Salon ● Sep. 3, 2020
He is also someone who overthinks, overacts and overshares.
From The Guardian ● Jun. 8, 2015
Regarding the cast, Puig says that Ray Liotta "overacts" in his role as Ryan's stern preacher father and Ashley Judd "dully plays" his mother, while the narration is "heavy-handed" and "clunky."
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 5, 2014
I cannot, and do not trust him—he somewhat overacts his part.
From Waverley Novels — Volume 12 by Sir Walter Scott
He overacted, but these are old songs whose sentiments can use some help.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 24, 2021
Or perhaps you will come to feel that you’ve overacted and yet still want to involve the school to prevent further issues.
From Slate ● Aug. 7, 2019
Zach Grenier overacted a bit, but I got absorbed into the twisty, postmodern plot.
From New York Times ● Dec. 5, 2017
But the transformation is so sudden — and, frankly, badly overacted by Guthrie, who seems to have forgotten that he’s playing a single human being, not two — that the tragedy rings hollow.
From Washington Post ● May 19, 2016
For a second I thought she was going to run into my arms as if we were reunited lovers in some overacted Aturan tragedy.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
The overacting is exhausting because it’s not only Iñárritu’s creative choice, but rather the methods employed by the play-within-a-movie’s director.
From Salon ● Oct. 5, 2026
"I replied, 'I can't cry'. I told her 'I'm not capable of overacting'."
From BBC ● Apr. 15, 2026
Her overacting meets Ms. Gyllenhaal’s over-filmmaking like the Hindenburg crashing into the Titanic.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 5, 2026
Then came the guards yelling, recordings that Burn monitored for overacting.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 27, 2023
Even Leeds’ Thespians on Demand, the famed English acting troupe known far and wide for their loud voices and shameless overacting, could not hold a candle to this family.
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
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.
