Ham in the end became speck (5)
I believe the answer is:
emote
'ham' is the definition.
(I know that emote is a is a kind of of ham)
'end became speck' is the wordplay.
'end' indicates one should take the final letters.
'speck' becomes 'mote' (synonyms).
The last letter of 'became' is 'e'.
'e'+'mote'='EMOTE'
'in the' is the link.
(Other definitions for emote that I've seen before include "Show strong feelings" , "Show exaggerated feelings" , "Express over-the-top feelings" , "give excessive show of feelings" , "Show great feelings" .)