stiff upper lip
IdiomsExample Sentences
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He is also softening the stiff upper lip that once personified his family’s approach; William was filmed recently tearing up after talking to a woman whose husband had died by suicide.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 11, 2026
“So many people do have this view that Harry should have had a stiff upper lip, that he should have grit his teeth and borne it,” Smith told me.
From Slate • Jan. 14, 2023
Anyone who has watched the many dramatizations of the queen’s life — including “The Crown” — or the coverage of her death is already well-versed in the problems of always maintaining a stiff upper lip.
From Washington Post • Nov. 13, 2022
She joked about her husband's phone ringing, saying: "I could have killed him. People think the Queen is all stiff upper lip but she has a sense of humour."
From BBC • Jul. 15, 2022
The British magazine Chess relaxed its stiff upper lip, calling Bobby’s effort a game of “great depth and brilliancy.”
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
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.
