stiff as a board

Idioms  

1. Also, stiff as a poker. Inflexible, rigidly formal, unbending, as in This cloth is stiff as a board; what happened to it? or There he stood, stiff as a poker, unwilling to give an inch. The board in the first simile for rigidity is a slab of wood; the second, alluding to the iron implement used to push around logs in open fires, dates from the late 1700s.

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Example Sentences

Unmoving and stiff as a board, she appeared to be deceased.

From Science Magazine

At first, Berry couldn’t run: He lay on the floor, rigid, face not moving, “as stiff as a board,” his tour manager recalled.

From Washington Post

When the Meyers first brought her home, that little girl refused to make eye contact with Mavis and became stiff as a board while she was held.

From Washington Times

When you leave on vacation, it’s moist and supple, but when you come back after a week or two, it’s dried out, shrunken and as stiff as a board.

From Los Angeles Times

When they levitate a member, they repeat the incantation from the first film: “Light as a feather, stiff as a board.”

From Washington Times

Related Words

• arthritic
• creaky
• rigid
• solid
• stark
• tense
• thick
• tight
• wooden