Or maybe she'd been born with that stiff backbone and circumstances had only reinforced it.

You've got to keep a stiff backbone.

You must keep a stiff upper lip, a stiff backbone; you must forget the wishbone and the envious heart.

She had an inquiring mind-perhapsexperimental would be the better word for it-abundantself-confidence and a good stiff backbone.

Somewhat earlier than usual he is losing the fanciful capricious qualities and settling down into the stiff backbone of the nation.

But the monotheism of his race was too deeply ingrained in him, and so he kept 'a stiff backbone' and 'bowed not down.'

Aye, money; kegs and kegs of shining trade dollars, aft in the lazaret, to be had for the taking by lads with stiff backbones.

"No man," says the Russian proverb, "can rise to honour who is cursed with a stiff backbone."