campier; campiest
: in the style of camp : absurdly exaggerated, artificial, or affected in a usually humorous way
campy horror movies
campy humor
Witnessing their synchronized routine, he almost expects them to break into some campy chorus line from one of the seedier nightclubs.Margaret Atwood
He could modify his outbursts into what were sometimes hilariously campy performances.Robert Gray
campily adverb
The new film promises to be as campily outrageous as its predecessors. John Stark
… the Addams Family, the campily macabre clan created by the late cartoonist Charles Addams … Margot Dougherty
campiness noun
… hoped to take Rocketeer to a much higher level of sophistication and avoid the campiness of some of the more recent comics-inspired films. Ron Magid
… a power-mad despot, played with exhilarating campiness by John Malkovich. Steven Rebello

Examples of campy in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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Parker Finn's directorial debut not only lives up to the hype but also delivers a campy and absurd exploration of the transference of generational trauma — pulling off some impressive jump scares and one hell of a phantasmagorical ending. Steven Thrash, Entertainment Weekly, 19 Oct. 2025 The end result was fun, campy and lighthearted enough to feel in on the joke. Julie Hinds, Freep.com, 17 Oct. 2025 Drag performance, with its abundance of wigs, campy makeup and death drops, is ready-made for Halloween. John Metcalfe, Mercury News, 16 Oct. 2025 To the rest of the world, this person is this campy eccentric thing. H. Alan Scott, MSNBC Newsweek, 8 Oct. 2025 See All Example Sentences for campy

Word History

Etymology

camp entry 3 + -y entry 1

First Known Use

1932, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of campy was in 1932

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Campy.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/campy. Accessed 23 Oct. 2025.

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