hokev.
/həʊk/ On the stage or screen: to overplay (a part), to act (a part) in an insincere, sentimental, or melodramatic manner. Also transferred and with up.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > drama > acting > act [verb (transitive)] > act in specific manner
misact1609
tragedize1755
overact1760
overplay1767
to walk through ——1824
underact1847
to play down to ——1880
routine1897
underplay1897
milk1921
ham1933
hoke1935
to camp it up1957
to play for laughs (also a laugh)1963
undercharacterize1970
1935 A. J. Pollock Underworld Speaks 57/1 Hoke, to string along; to jolly; to ridicule.
1938 M. McCarthy in Partisan Rev. Jan. 48 Actors who have been playing for a long time in the same play will..‘hoke’ their performances more and more. A giggle becomes a laugh; a catch in the throat, a sob.
1939 C. Morley Kitty Foyle xxv. 244 She had the guts to keep her stuff to exclusive outlets and hoke it up with all sorts of restrictions.
1940 S. Lewis Bethel Merriday xxvii. 283 Mr. Nooks had..overplayed—‘hoked’ is the technical word—the role of the Apothecary.
1961 Punch 22 Feb. 331/2 The average moviegoer..is pleased to see pictorial evidence, a little hoked up for added amusement.
1971 M. Babson Cover-up Story iii. 33 Just try it straight..it's a mistake to hoke it up.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1976; most recently modified version published online September 2021).
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