Find the word definition

Crossword clues for histrionic

The Collaborative International Dictionary
Histrionic

Histrionic \His`tri*on"ic\, Histrionical \His`tri*on"ic*al\, a.

  1. Of or relating to the stage or a stageplayer; befitting a theatre; theatrical.

  2. Affectedly dramatic; insincerely emotional; -- sometimes used in a bad sense. -- His`tri*on"ic*al*ly, adv.

    Tainted with false and histrionic feeling.
    --De Quincey.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
histrionic

"theatrical" (figuratively, "hypocritical"), 1640s, from Latin histrionicus "pertaining to an actor," from histrio (genitive histrionis) "actor," said to be of Etruscan origin. The literal sense in English is from 1759.

Wiktionary
histrionic

a. Of, or relating to actors or acting.

WordNet
histrionic

adj. characteristic of acting or a stage performance; often affected; "histrionic gestures"; "an attitude of melodramatic despair"; "a theatrical pose" [syn: melodramatic]

Wikipedia
Histrionic

Histrionic may refer to:

  • related to or reminiscent of ( theatrical) acting, or acting out
  • Histrionic personality disorder, a Cluster B personality disorder
  • Histrionics (album), by The Higher
  • Histrionicus, a genus of ducks

Usage examples of "histrionic".

Instead, she had faked a histrionic attack of amnesia, like something right out of a soap opera.

For himself, he cared little for the dramatics enacted on the stage--and even less for the histrionics played out in the corridors, the little dramas of tonnish life.

Not only was their new victim guilt-racked and histrionic, it was also recriminatory to a point of hysteria.

This lady fiend had an understudy, a poor foundling girl, who had learned her histrionic craft in a Seventh Day Adventist Home for Orphans.

Thawed enough to relax stiff ideals and his death grip on harebrained histrionics, he stood down, his stout hand released from his sword grip.

In the best histrionic village style, Sourmelina unleashed soaring arias in which she lamented the death of her husband and castigated him for dying.

At such times she astonished him by taking his most solemn histrionics with flippant incredulity, and even burlesquing them.

And it was true that the maestro's histrionic condemnation of Carrik and Crystal Singers had done much to increase her desire.

Poor Damia, she said in a self-derisive tone, ever since that encounter with that dreadful mind-alien, she's been nothing but a T-, T T- Damia tried out the different grades for size and then discarded them all, along with her histrionics.

He had perhaps been insensibly working toward some such perception as now came to him that the great difference between Europe and America was that in Europe life is histrionic and dramatized, and that in America, except when it is trying to be European, it is direct and sincere.

She gestured eastward in a histrionic fashion, then flounced down on the chair the violin had occupied.

Those with histrionic personality disorder enjoy being onstage so much that sometimes they don’.

He not only fit within the parameters that define an antisocial personality, he also had facets of the narcissistic personality disorder and the histrionic personality disorder.

Voices were raised to a certain histrionic pitch, people handled their inhalers and drinks with a slightly more studied elegance, and every smile turned my way was bright enough for a team of security experts.

While making no secret of the fact that he found the great player’s affectations insupportable, his odd mispronunciations ruining his most brilliant histrionic flights, he took a box at Covent Garden, and escorted Sophy there, with Cecilia and Mr.