overact

English

Etymology

over- +‎ act

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌəʊvəɹˈækt/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

Verb

overact (third-person singular simple present overacts, present participle overacting, simple past and past participle overacted)

1. (acting) To act in an exaggerated manner.

   He overacted his part.

2. (obsolete, transitive) To act upon, or influence, unduly.
   • 1670, John Milton, “(please specify the page)”, in The History of Britain, that Part Especially now Call’d England. […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for James Allestry, […] , →OCLC:

     The hope of inheritance overacts them.

Synonyms

• chew the scenery, ham, ham it up, melodramatize, tear a cat

Derived terms

• overactor

Translations

act in an exaggerated manner

• Bulgarian: преигравам (preigravam)
• Dutch: overacteren (nl)
• Finnish: ylinäytellä
• German: übertrieben spielen, übertreiben (de)
• Hungarian: eltúloz (hu), túljátszik (hu)
• Italian: gigioneggiare (it)
• Portuguese: exagerar (pt)
• Russian: переигрывать (ru) (pereigryvatʹ)