English

Alternative forms

• chew on the scenery, chew up the scenery

Verb

chew the scenery

1. (idiomatic, performing arts) To display excessive emotion or to act in an exaggerated manner while performing; to be melodramatic; to be flamboyant.
   • 2006 October 11, James Poniewozik, "Fall TV Preview," Time:

     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.

Synonyms

• ham it up, melodramatize, overact

Translations

References

• Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang