How to Use stiff upper lip in a Sentence

stiff upper lip

noun
  • British stiff upper lip and all that, but come on, the kid is four.
    Elizabeth Logan, Glamour, 8 June 2022
  • The Sox need to display a stiff upper lip and bounce back Sunday.
    Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 29 June 2019
  • Her stiff upper lip, and the monarchy, seemed frozen in a distant time.
    Maria Puente and Jeff Stinson, USA TODAY, 8 Sep. 2022
  • Trump displays a stiff upper lip in the face of the pandemic.
    Barry Blitt, The New Yorker, 2 July 2020
  • Keep a stiff upper lip like any good Brit and go out and do your best for queen and country.
    Dave Hyde, Sun-Sentinel.com, 29 Sep. 2017
  • Colman keeps a stiff upper lip, even as the role begins to shift out from under her.
    Washington Post, 12 Nov. 2020
  • Colin Firth is a badass now Fans shouldn’t expect Firth to loosen his stiff upper lip just yet.
    Phil Boucher, PEOPLE.com, 23 Sep. 2017
  • Yet the show is not all starched collars and stiff upper lips—much of the art gleefully sends up staid stereotypes.
    The Economist, 25 Feb. 2020
  • Don’t get me wrong: there is a place for a stiff upper lip, and for a sense of humor to help get through a situation.
    Simon Perry, PEOPLE.com, 5 Sep. 2017
  • One hastens to quip, keep a stiff upper lip, There’ll soon be Thanksgiving in town.
    Gary Robbins, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Nov. 2020
  • There’s a message in there, something about keeping a stiff upper lip.
    al, 6 Apr. 2020
  • The nation’s stiff upper lip has softened, and the king will want to reflect that to a degree, analysts say.
    Max Colchester, WSJ, 12 Sep. 2022
  • And that’s on top of the English stiff upper lip [mentality].
    Tyler Coates, The Hollywood Reporter, 2 Mar. 2023
  • Off-the-line performance and exterior styling are where the LS's stiff upper lip give way to the SC's sly, sultry grin.
    Larry Griffin, Car and Driver, 26 June 2020
  • Physicians are taught to sacrifice, overlook pain and keep a stiff upper lip.
    Robert Pearl, Forbes, 19 Apr. 2021
  • You’re glued by her range of expressive reactions, trapped in the limbo between tears and a stiff upper lip.
    Al Alexander, USA TODAY, 14 Feb. 2020
  • Even our most esteemed leaders couldn’t hide behind the proverbial stiff upper lip.
    Rodger Dean Duncan, Forbes, 8 June 2022
  • But unlike their regal mistress, the Queen’s corgis did not always keep a stiff upper lip.
    Brigit Katz, Smithsonian, 18 Apr. 2018
  • Growing up during the depression years and the war left emotional scars, but gave her a stiff upper lip to deal with life's many challenges.
    courant.com, 10 July 2018
  • In modern times, the stiff upper lip has become anachronistic.
    Barbara A. Perry, Time, 9 Oct. 2017
  • Alice and her stiff upper lip are ready to accept this lot until the pack horse program comes recruiting.
    Karin Tanabe, Washington Post, 3 Oct. 2019
  • The Blue Jays maintained a stiff upper lip throughout, but Lebron could sense something missing.
    Gabe Lacques, USA TODAY, 19 Aug. 2021
  • Prince Harry comes from a long line of military men who took pride in adopting a stiff upper lip attitude and getting on with the job.
    Louis Staples, CNN, 12 Jan. 2023
  • Rachel Tunnard and Rosanne Flynn's script piles on the schmaltz (even as the ladies pointedly keep a stiff upper lip), but that's part of the film's particular pleasure.
    Mary Sollosi, EW.com, 22 May 2020
  • Henry told of how in his time as a footballer, players were expected to keep a stiff upper lip and their problems to themselves in fear of later reprisals.
    Tom Sanderson, Forbes, 7 Mar. 2022
  • But the famous British stiff upper lip came in handy and people across the nation kept calm and carried on -- aside from some outbursts of disgust on social media.
    Rob Picheta, CNN, 18 July 2019
  • In fact, Tom is the first American Macfadyen’s played on television, and the actor, 44, seems delighted to leave the stiff upper lip behind.
    Los Angeles Times, 8 Aug. 2019
  • In fact, Tom is the first American Macfadyen's played on television, and the actor, 44, seems delighted to leave the stiff upper lips behind.
    Meredith Blake, chicagotribune.com, 12 Aug. 2019
  • The British, as a general rule, pride themselves on being in control of their emotions and sort of stiff upper lip in handling whatever life throws at them.
    Adrienne Gaffney, ELLE, 31 Aug. 2022
  • The stiff upper lip, no matter how painful the attacks, was expected to remain impossibly rigid at all times.
    Omid Scobie, Harper's BAZAAR, 10 Mar. 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'stiff upper lip.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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