camp it up
Play it exaggerated
To camp it up is to behave in an exaggeratedly theatrical, flamboyant, or effeminate manner, often for comic effect or self-aware irony: The actor really camped it up in that scene.
The phrase draws on camp—a sensibility that embraces artifice, exaggeration, and playful excess.
Someone camping it up knows exactly what they're doing and wants you to notice.
- overactPerform with excess
- ham it upPerform with exaggerated theatrics
- exaggerateOverstate beyond truth
- over the topExcessively theatrical or extreme
- go bigAct with maximum ambition
pantomime · drag queen · showy · flamboyant · kitsch · theatrical · put up a show · put on a show · make a scene · ostentatious · larger than life · work the room · posture · vamp · mugging · act out · gay pride · parody
camp it upunderplay
Minimize emphasis or expression
play it straight · tone it down · downplay · understate · act naturally
camp, camping, campy, camped, camps, camper, campers, campness, encampment