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 “overact,” 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, “The Ham-Fat Man.” From this hamfatter came to mean “an inexpert and flamboyant actor,” and was in the late 1800s shortened to ham . The idiom here was first recorded in 1933.