Other forms: hokes; hoked; hoking
To hoke is to overact or exaggerate, the way the star of your school's play might hoke up her death scene, staggering around the stage and moaning before collapsing gracefully to the ground.
Hoke was originally theatrical slang, coined around 1935 from an earlier slang term, hokum, "melodramatic acting." You can use hoke as a noun or a verb for anything exaggerated or insincere, although the adjective hokey, "corny or phony," is more common. If you prefer understated, realistic movies, you're going to be annoyed by filmmakers who hoke up their productions with car chases, cartoonish action sequences, and over-the-top performances.