noun
ham
HAM
noun
1
Meat from the thigh of a pig, cured or cooked for eating.
"She made a sandwich with ham and mustard."
"They baked a whole ham for the holiday dinner."
2
An amateur radio operator.
"He got his ham radio license as a teenager."
3
An actor or performer who overacts.
"The old actor was a bit of a ham, milking every scene."
verb
1
To overact or perform with exaggerated emotion.
"He hammed it up for the camera."
How to Use Ham
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishMost often the cured pork you eat, but also slang for an amateur radio enthusiast or a show-off performer.
Common pairings
ham sandwich
ham radio
ham it up
Word Forms
hammed past tense, hams plural, hams plural, Hams plural, hams singular
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Etymology
From Old English hamm, originally meaning the back of the knee, later extended to the thigh and then to the cured meat from it.