stiff as a board

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.

Example Sentences

Another stands stiff as a board on the bottom step of a cabin.

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

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

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“Now you’ll want to hold it out in front of you and press—” I press the button and Magnus goes stiff as a board, his thick arms clapping against his sides.

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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.

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Related Words

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