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keep a straight face

Idioms  

  1. Don't show one's feelings, especially refrain from laughing. For example, The school orchestra played so many wrong notes that I had trouble keeping a straight face. [Late 1800s]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

I struggle to keep a straight face.

From Literature

I raise an eyebrow, trying to keep a straight face.

From Literature

I have to fight to keep a straight face.

From Literature

This is so obviously a market mania that I honestly don’t know how anyone on the Street of Shame can say otherwise and keep a straight face.

From MarketWatch

The world’s leaders—friends, foes, and those in between—keep a straight face at all this.

From Slate

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.