Related Clues:

• Was uptight
• Became rigid
• Like some shirt collars
• Tightened (up)
• Shuffled 'the cards'?
• Tightened
• The heavenly body he had around the century made him a big stiff, perhaps
• That's stiff with the broken carts he had
• Being so uptight, was in verbal fashion, perhaps
• Uptight in verbal form first
• Prepared to spring
• Grew rigid (with "up")
• Became anxious
• Became edgy
• Stiffened (of shirts)