Home > Terms > English, UK (UE) > Stiff upper lip
Stiff upper lip
One who has a stiff upper lip displays fortitude in the face of adversity, or exercises great self-restraint in the expression of emotion. The phrase is most commonly heard as part of the idiom "keep a stiff upper lip", and has traditionally been used to describe an attribute of British people, who are sometimes perceived by other cultures as being unemotional. A sign of weakness is trembling of the upper lip, hence the saying keep a stiff upper lip. When a person's upper lip begins to tremble, it is one of the first signs that the person is scared or shaken by experiencing deep emotion.
0
0
Improve it
- Part of Speech: noun
- Synonym(s):
- Blossary: American Idiom
- Industry/Domain: Language
- Category: Idioms
- Company:
- Product:
- Acronym-Abbreviation:
Other Languages:
Member comments
Terms in the News
Featured Terms
Industry/Domain: Anthropology Category: Cultural anthropology
Fraternal polyandry
Marriage of one woman with a set of brothers.
Contributor
Featured blossaries
mihaela1982
0
Terms
1
Blossaries
0
Followers
French origin terms in English
Category: Languages 1 2 Terms
Browers Terms By Category
- Ballroom(285)
- Belly dance(108)
- Cheerleading(101)
- Choreography(79)
- Historical dance(53)
- African-American(50)
Dance(760) Terms
- General law(5868)
- Contracts(640)
- Patent & trademark(449)
- Legal(214)
- US law(77)
- European law(75)
Law(7373) Terms
- General boating(783)
- Sailboat(137)
- Yacht(26)
Boat(946) Terms
- ISO standards(4935)
- Six Sigma(581)
- Capability maturity model integration(216)
Quality management(5732) Terms
- Authors(2488)
- Sportspeople(853)
- Politicians(816)
- Comedians(274)
- Personalities(267)
- Popes(204)