Keep Your Chin Up

An American phrase from the late 1800s to early 1900s, documented in a Pennsylvania newspaper, The Evening Democrat, from that period, though it only became genuinely popular from the 1940s onward, likely boosted by its heavy use during the Second World War. It draws directly on boxing, where a fighter who keeps their chin raised, rather than dropping their guard, signals confidence and refusal to be beaten. It replaced an older British version, "keep your pecker up," current since the 1840s, when "pecker" simply meant courage or resolve, before the word picked up different connotations in American English.