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• n  a rod used to ram the charge into a muzzle-loading firearm
• n  a harshly demanding overseer
• n  a rod used to clean the barrel of a firearm

• A battalion of frock-coated military-academy cadets stood ramrod straight; eight mariachi bands and two brass bands took their positions.
• None of that dims the luster a former general or admiral they tend to be slender, ramrod straight, and well-spoken, especially on foreign-policy matters can bring to a .
• A towering chap with a ramrod back and a vaguely wintery air, he retains a formidable presence even as he potters about the twisting rows of tea bushes swaddling the slopes below .

News & Articles

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• Civil War Soldiers Needed Bravery To Face The Foe, And The Food
  Tooth-breaking crackers infested with bugs. Ramrod rolls cooked on gun parts. Fake coffee made of peanuts and chicory. At Gettysburg and elsewhere, the rations faced by soldiers on both sides of the Civil War would make most of us want to surrender in dismay.
  July 3, 2013 - NPR

Quotes

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• JaMarcus Russell in ABC30.com
  I don't know that everybody was sitting up [ramrod] straight for every session, but I do know that guys paid pretty close attention,said Oakland Raiders' quarterback JaMarcus Russell, the top overall choice in this year's draft. "I mean,...
• Karen Shepherd in Salt Lake Tribune
  He didn't make deals and you wouldn't call Bill a compromiser,said former Rep. Karen Shepherd, a Democrat who served in Congress with Orton. "He was one of those people with a ramrod-straight backbone and he would always stay ramrod...
• Joe Biden in Richmond Times Dispatch
  Biden said Obama "has a backbone like a ramrod" and he can take 11 more days of these attacks, "but the country can't take four more years."