Word.ws English Dictionary

stiff upper lip

stiff upper lip noun: the quality of being resolute and showing self-restraint, stereotypically associated with the British; especially as keep a stiff upper lip.

Noun

stiff upper lip (plural stiff upper lips)

  1. (idiomatic) The quality of being resolute and showing self-restraint, stereotypically associated with the British; especially as keep a stiff upper lip.
    • I thought now the jig was mighty nigh up with me, but I determined to keep a stiff upper lip.1834, David Crockett, A Narrative of the Life of David Crockett, page 130
    • Stiff upper lip, stout fella. Carry on, old fluff. Chin up, keep muddling through. Stiff upper lip, stout fella, when the going’s rough. Pip pip to old man trouble and a toodle-oo too.[…] Stiff upper lip, stout fella, when you’re in the stew. Sober or blotto, this is your motto. Keep muddling...1959, “Stiff Upper Lip”, in Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook, performed by Ella Fitzgerald

Examples of stiff upper lip in a sentence

  • Stiff upper lip, stout fella, when the going’s rough.1959, “Stiff Upper Lip”, in Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Songbook, performed by Ella Fitzgerald:
  • In typical British stiff upper lip fashion, the tournament organizers expected us to play into, and through, the menacing weather.2005, Ben Wright, Michael Patrick Shiels, Good Bounces and Bad Lies, page 39:

Forms of stiff upper lip

pluralstiff upper lips

Origin of stiff upper lip

Of American origin; the earliest known use is in 1811.https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Olive_Branch_Or_Faults_on_Both_Sides/vG89AAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=stiff+upper+lip&pg=PA237&printsec=frontcover

Words formed from stiff upper lip

Questions about stiff upper lip

What does stiff upper lip mean?
Stiff upper lip means the quality of being resolute and showing self-restraint, stereotypically associated with the British; especially as keep a stiff upper lip.
How do you use stiff upper lip in a sentence?
Stiff upper lip, stout fella, when the going’s rough.
What part of speech is stiff upper lip?
Stiff upper lip is a noun.
What is the plural of stiff upper lip?
The plural of stiff upper lip is stiff upper lips.

Words near stiff upper lip in the dictionary

  1. stiff shit
  2. stiff sickness
  3. stiff skin syndrome
  4. Stiff Street
  5. stiff up
  6. stiff upper lip
  7. stiff upper lippy
  8. stiff upper lips
  9. stiff-arm
  10. stiff-armed
  11. stiff-arming

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stiff upper lip (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-stiff upper lip.ogg.

Cite this entry: “stiff upper lip.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/stiff_upper_lip. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.