camp, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

camp adj.

[‘Actions and gestures of exaggerated emphasis. Probably from the French. Used chiefly by persons of exceptional want of character. “How very camp he is.”’ (Ware). Anthony Burgess suggests a link to SE camp, a military base, mining or railroad camp, in which, as in a prison, a lack of women might lead to homosexuality and where effeminate men would act deliberately in this manner to attract admirers. He also notes the availability, in London, of soldiers from the city barracks, willing to indulge gay men-about-town]

1. (also camping, campish, kamp) effeminate, affected, exaggerated; the over-riding image is that of limp-wristed homosexuality.

1868		F. Park Letter Nov. in Katz Love Stories (2001) 193: [My] campish undertakings are not at present meeting with the success they deserve.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 61/2: Camp (Street), actions and gestures of exaggerated emphasis. Probably from the French. Used chiefly by persons of exceptional want of character. ‘How very camp he is.’.
1925		R. McAlmon Distinguished Air (1963) 10: His camping manner, copied from stage fairies in America, sat strangely upon him.
1932		T. Croft Cloven Hoof 65: ‘Camp’: effeminate, [...] may be used of behaviour, of persons, or of articles of dress.
1937		Duckett & Staple ‘Double Feature’ in N.Y. Age 28 Aug. 7/1: Tell Jackie Hairston to stop being so campsih and write that anxious fella back home.
1941		Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl. 16: Camp (adj.), homosexual.
1947		K. Williams Diaries 1 Jan. 8: Went to Singapore with Stan — very camp evening, but tatty types so didn’t bother to make overtures.
1959		F. Norman Fings I i: Red plush is just too camp, ain’t it?
1966		T. Keyes All Night Stand 114: There will be a few people around who are a bit camp.
1978		F. Norman Dead Butler Caper 64: Tangerine was a camp young queen with yellow hair.
1982		Gay News 9–22 Dec. n.p.: Seeks strong-minded camp type artist friends.
1983		J. Byrell (con. 1959) Up the Cross 123: He was as kamp as a paddockful of wigwams.
1997		D. Farson Never a Normal Man 94: He [...] was quick to notice the androgyny shared by many comedians from Chaplin to Sid Fields, not exactly ‘camp’ but dainty.
2005		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper 4 41: Mick Chatters was poncing about in a pair of high camp sunglasses.
2011		Private Eye 7-20 Jan. 29/1: His enemy, softy Walter, has become increasingly camp.

2. strange, but amusing.

1963–74		B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 36: Fiona sweetie, how camp to see you like this! What a super giggle!
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 41: Batman became camp because his purpose in life – crime-fighting – became so serious it grew absurd. Items are also camp if they are so ostentatious they’re considered good taste. So bad they’re good.
1984		C. White Life and Times of Little Richard 123: Richard went on the road again with [...] an outrageously camp image.
1995		R. Campbell Wizard of La-La Land (1999) 64: Sophisticates who [...] pretended to be amused by the childish rigmarole, the camp worship of Satan.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 226: Gai Smith had made an appearance or two on the coochy-coo, camp, sutures-and-scalpels Reg Grundy soap ‘The Young Doctors’.
2000		Indep. 10 Jan. 18: After the Sixties there was a vogue for investing dogs with ludicrously camp names like the Hon Septimus Muff or calling a brace of labradors Kensington and Chelsea.

3. stylish.

1981		Sounds 24 Jan. n.p.: He’s a nice boy. Real camp.
1986–7		Maledicta IX 168: Its language is [...] for the most part, not straightforward or clever or smart or camp.

In phrases

camp as a row of tents (adj.)

of a male homosexual, extremely, ostentatiously effeminate.

1951		E. Lambert Sleeping House Party 12: They were camp, as a coarse common army friend of mine once put it, as a row of tents [GS].
1965		J. O’Grady Aussie Eng. (1966) 72: A male homosexual. Known to be ‘camp.’ ‘Camp as a row o’ tents’.
1973		J. Justin Prisoner 41: Don’t you threaten me! You’re as camp as a row of tents yourself anyway. Trying to go butch.
1986		R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 13: Camp as a row of tents: A raving queer, poofter or shirt lifter. A homosexual male.
1998		P. Doyle (con. late 1950s) Amaze Your Friends (2019) 168: Michael’s as camp as a row of tents.
2005		M.B. ‘Chopper’ Read Chopper 4 181: The head of Hitlers [sic] ‘brown shirts’ [...] was as ‘camp as a row of mein tents.’ [Ibid.] 258: This one particular gentleman [...] was ‘camp as a row of tents.’.
2007		Bedford & Sellars Lonely Planet Netherlands 105: Many popular gay places are along Reguliersdwarsstraat (see Map pp92–3) – it’s as camp as a row of tents.
2018		I. Welsh Dead Man’s Trousers [37]: I’m straight, but I’m still as camp as a row of tents.

camp as Chloe (adj.) (also camp as Clarry) [ref. to the same portrait of Chloe that inspired drunk as Chloe adj.]

of a man or a male homosexual, extremely affected, effeminate; of a woman or female homosexual, acting in a very masculine manner.

1965		G. Melly Owning Up (1974) 227: I come over on the telly as camp as Chloe.
1977		G. Melly Rum, Bum and Concertina (1978) 12: [H]er fondness for [...] the theatrical atmosphere added to her circle a number of visiting firewomen all as camp as Chloe.
1984		Flame : a Life on the Game 150: Poppit slapped up to the eyeballs and camp as Clarry.
2002		L. Lochead Misery Guts 64: Young David in my office? Alex, don’t be dim! Young Dave the Boy Researcher? Camp as Chloe!