stiff spine

His stiff spine and measured tone left little room for argument.

As if she remembered his presence, she turned to him with a stiff spine.

They each have a single stiff spine at the tip, hence the specific name monacantha.

In the novel Emma is the very emblem of indignantly stiff spine.

The leaves are deeply lobed with long, stiff spines along the margins.

No saddle, no straps, nothing but his own legs and the stiff spines in front of him.

It was not a matter of a stiff spine, squared shoulders, and a sucked-in stomach.

It erects a stem which may have webby fibers and long, stiff spines.

"Yes, sir," they all said, and they turned back to their tasks with noticeably stiffer spines.

It is covered with stiff spines, which stick to fur and clothing and can be quite difficult to extract.

The fruit is an edible red berry about a centimeter wide which is covered in stiff spines.

A small doglike creature with stiff spines running along its back began to bark at the big creature, which took no notice.

And the playwright, obviously sensitive to characters closest to her in age and temperament, has given them the stiffest spines in the play.

It was a beautiful bow, and the arrows were perfectly matched to it, with good stiff spines to give better cast and accuracy.

I tried to imagine Doc Homer coming downtown on horseback, looking silly, his tall, stiff spine bouncing up and down against his will.

Her long, quick stride and stiff spine showed her anger almost as well as her words and tone of voice.

The caterpillar was a hairy fellow, bristling with stiff spines, and I doubted that the tongue had enough mucilage on it to stick to him.

Silver-haired and ruddy-faced, he also had a reputation as a raconteur and the ability to show good humor as well as stiff spine.

Mr. Herreweghe and the Ensemble Musique Oblique give the arrangement a stiff spine, without which it would all come tumbling down.

He nodded, and with a stiff spine that had everything to do with willpower and only a little to do with corseting, Sherrie faced the door.

According to paleontologist Josep Quintana Cardona, N. rex didn't hop much if at all, as evident by its relatively short stiff spine.

Row after row of the Varden boxed in the area around the post, every man, woman, dwarf, and Urgal standing with stiff spines and squared shoulders.

"Levin is the brighest individual I've ever met, but I thought Nick had more skills as a chief executive, perhaps a stiffer spine, and that is why I picked him.

Meanwhile, a growing number of Republican politicians, including Christine Todd Whitman and William Weld, have developed the stiffer spines that were out of fashion among Eastern Republicans during the Bush years.

Howell (2004) provides the following diagnosic/identifying characteristics: "M. asperatus is distinguished from Misumenoides and Misumena in that the carapace, adbomen and legs are distinctively covered with numerous short stiff spines.