straight face

Related to straight face: at least, by way of, keep a straight face

a straight face

An emotionless facial expression, especially in a humorous situation that could easily cause one to laugh. It's so hard to keep a straight face on camera when you have hilarious co-stars like I do.
See also: face, straight
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

*straight face

Fig. a face free from smiles or laughter. (*Typically: have ~; keep ~.) It's hard to keep a straight face when someone tells a funny joke.
See also: face, straight
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • a straight face
  • keep a straight face
  • keep a straight face, to
  • poker face
  • poker face, a
  • deadpan
  • MFW
  • ricockulous
  • me three
  • my face when
References in periodicals archive
Senator Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) preposterously called the assault weapons ban one of "the most effective measures against terrorism that we have." Similarly, John Kerry maintained with a straight face that the lapse of the law would benefit al-Qaeda.
Well in that case, kudos to Richard Poynder for asking such good questions with a straight face.
Men are competitive, dominance-seeking, aggressive, and ambitious; women are nurturers and peacemakers with a "taste for harmonious, egalitarian connections." (As the very sensible feminist Elizabeth Fox-Genovese wrote some years ago, no one who has been snubbed by a high school girls' clique could ever make such a claim with a straight face.) Men want careers and sex; women want marriage and babies.
Delivered with a straight face, von Rosenberg's pitch was that human consumption of oil concentrates from the lowly menhaden fish battled cardiovascular disease and even rheumatoid arthritis.
No one will ever forget this session, when the Byrdman sponsored a couple of tax hits on the big city press, and then said with a straight face that it had nothing to do with any newspaper editorials criticizing his boys on the GOP side of the aisle.
But Footballers Wives actor John and comic Freddie couldn't keep a straight face - and ended up peaking in each other's thongs to check who's the BIGGEST star.
Even in a relative sense, few of us who bear these words today can claim with a straight face to be poor or hungry in the primary meaning of those words.
How can Cllr Walker keep a straight face as the double rings of the Mysterons pass over him?
Mind you, try saying semidemimetopes with an entirely straight face. As to the effectiveness of the Getty thesaurus, it has evidently been designed by librarians with bewildering and unexplained numbers and brackets and left and right arrows which all look very purposeful but are scary for innocent newco mers.
How Bush could then say, with a straight face, that "we didn't ask for this challenge" is beyond me.
The truth is that I couldn't have kept a straight face in the presence of anyone who calls himself P Diddy.
Only an actor so earnest and devoid of a sense of humour could bellow, "BeHOLD the word of the Lord!" and maintain a straight face. My favorite bits of camp are Edward G.
No one can maintain a straight face and say that postal reform will lower the cost of the First Class stamp Aunt Minnie puts on her birthday card to her niece.
It is hoped that a smiley face, a sad face and a straight face, used on the posters to demonstrate emotions associated with driving, will have an effect on drivers who put lives at risk by breaking the speed limit.
Known for keeping a straight face while setting you up for a joke.