TO OUT-HEROD HEROD, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To out-do; specifically (theatrical) to excel in rant.
1596. SHAKESPEARE, Hamlet, iii. 2. Oh, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious, perriwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings;… it OUT-HERODS HEROD.
