Meaning
Deliberate emotional restraint in the face of distress or adversity: to keep a stiff upper lip is to stay calm, resolute, and undemonstrative rather than giving way to tears or complaint. Now strongly associated with a stereotyped British ideal of stoicism, and often used with irony about that ideal. Often invoked today with mild irony, acknowledging a dated ideal of suppressed feeling. Regional use: General English; strongest association with British English.
Origin
Ironically for the most British of tags, the documented origin is American. The earliest known appearance is in the Massachusetts Spy of 1815, and the phrase later shows up in the Dictionary of Americanisms (1848) and Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852); historians at Queen Mary University of London note it was essentially unknown to British readers as late as the 1870s. The logic is physiological: a trembling upper lip betrays fear or impending tears, so holding it stiff suppresses the visible sign of emotion. The phrase crossed the Atlantic in the late 19th century and became bound up with public-school and imperial ideals of stoic restraint; the association was sealed in the popular imagination partly by the 1937 Hollywood film Damsel in Distress, whose song celebrated the trait.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- a very British stiff upper lip
- keep a stiff upper lip
- stiff-upper-lip (adjectival)
- with a stiff upper lip
Usage Examples
- True to form, Grandfather kept a stiff upper lip through the whole flood cleanup.
- The captain's stiff upper lip after the defeat steadied the younger players.
- You don't have to keep a stiff upper lip with us; it's all right to be disappointed.