keep (one's) chin up

To improve one's mood, especially when sad or discouraged. Come on, the project was not a total failure—keep your chin up! Keep your chin up, honey—tomorrow's another day.

Fig. to keep one's spirits high; to act brave and confident. Keep your chin up, John. Things will get better. Just keep your chin up and tell the judge exactly what happened.

Fig. an expression of encouragement to someone who has to bear some emotional burdens. (Fixed order.) Fred: I really can't take much more of this. Jane: Keep your chin up. Things will get better. John: Smile, Fred. Keep your chin up. Fred: I guess you're right. I just get so depressed when I think of this mess I'm in.

Be stalwart and courageous in a difficult situation, as in Don't let the loan officer intimidate you; keep your chin up, or Despite all the difficulty, he kept his chin up. This expression alludes to a posture of firm resolution. [First half of 1900s]

If you keep your chin up, you stay cheerful in a difficult or unpleasant situation. Richards was keeping his chin up yesterday despite the continued setbacks. Keep your chin up: things will get better.

To be stalwart, courageous, or optimistic in the face of difficulty.

Don’t lose courage. This term has replaced the older British keep your pecker up, current there since the 1840s, when pecker actually was defined in a dictionary as meaning “courage” or “resolution.” The latter did not catch on much in America, where “pecker” is also slang for “penis,” changing the meaning entirely. Keep your chin up, however, has been a cliché for some time; it certainly was by the time P. A. Taylor wrote, “You have to keep your chin up” (The Six Iron Spiders, 1942).