stick up one's ass

stick up one's ass

1. (Canada, US, idiomatic) A stiff, stern, uptight, or humorless manner.
   • 2009, Don Nigro, Gorgons and Other Plays, →ISBN, p. 47 (Google preview):

     My parents […] had been decently off at some time in the past, but all that remained by the time I came along was a certain New Englandy Puritan sense of respectability. […] I've inherited it. As much as I've tried to fight it, when you're born with a stick up your ass, you die with a stick up your ass.

   • 2014, Jay Giles, Moneymoon's End, →ISBN, ch. 1 (Google preview):

     President Adrian Kantor, whom […] Sandy often referred to as a "prissy do-gooder with a stick up his ass," credited Sanderson & Dunn with his swift ascent from the House to the Senate to the White House.

   • 2015, Tara Mills, Going Solo, →ISBN, ch. 2 (Google preview):

     He was too straight-laced to appreciate piercings and tattoos. If he could manage to keep future comments to himself, she wouldn't have any reason to mention the stick up his ass.

• pickle up one's ass
• pole up one's ass
• stick up one's butt