Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To perform (a theatrical role) weakly, with insufficient expressiveness, or with intentionally understated expressiveness.
- intransitive verb To perform in an understated or unemotional way.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To act or perform, as a play or part, inefficiently.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To perform inefficiently, as a play; to act feebly.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To
act in anunderstated manner or with littleexpressiveness
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb act (a role) with great restraint
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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A fine British cast overact or underact in this perfunctory true-life tale of a working-class lad from a sink estate in south London.
The Kid 2010
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I spent my youth anesthetizing myself just enough to stand the daily less-violent silent injustices, and I think it means I tend to underact when the hatred is more open.
Eyes on whose prize, part 2 Kay Olson 2007
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I spent my youth anesthetizing myself just enough to stand the daily less-violent silent injustices, and I think it means I tend to underact when the hatred is more open.
Archive 2007-01-01 Kay Olson 2007
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There are a grand total of two scenes where Kristen Stewart does NOT underact, and the hospital scene is absolutely brilliant in my opinion.
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There are a grand total of two scenes where Kristen Stewart does NOT underact, and the hospital scene is absolutely brilliant in my opinion.
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In fact, he suggested political leaders were better to "overact" than "underact" when it comes to speeding stimulus money out the door.
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She doesn't overact or underact; she just stands around with whatever the appropriate expression for the scene seems to be on her sweet, pretty, childlike face.
Comments
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