chew the scenery

English - English

Definition of chew the scenery in English English dictionary

To display excessive emotion or to act in an exaggerated manner while performing; to be melodramatic; to be flamboyant

Starring as a Great White Hope police commissioner sent to clean up Washington, D.C., Nelson displays a set of pipes barely hinted at in his years on Coach, spending the long pilot hour barking, bloviating, singing(!) and generally chewing the scenery.

Hyphenation

chew the scen·e·ry

Turkish pronunciation

çu dhi sinıri

Synonyms

ham it up, melodramatize, overact

Pronunciation

/ˈʧo͞o ᴛʜē ˈsēnərē/ /ˈʧuː ðiː ˈsiːnɜriː/

Etymology

() Its earliest reference is listed in the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang as being used by Mary Hallock Foote in Coeur D'Alene in 1894.