Stiff-lipped
adj ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Maintaining a stiff upper lip.
"There is no accessible public roll of the knights of the order. [...] At this moment any stiff-lipped impostor may enter the jeweller's shop at the corner of Essex-street and the Strand, furnish himself with an imitation cross, and parade his counterfeit hero-certificate with impunity."
Example
More examples"There is no accessible public roll of the knights of the order. [...] At this moment any stiff-lipped impostor may enter the jeweller's shop at the corner of Essex-street and the Strand, furnish himself with an imitation cross, and parade his counterfeit hero-certificate with impunity."
Etymology
The term refers to a person having a stern expression with the mouth closed and the lips pressed together.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.