as in conservative
a person with old-fashioned ideas
a fuddy-duddy who thought that anyone too young to vote shouldn't be out past 8:00 p.m.
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in stodgy
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Recent Examples of fuddy-duddy
Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 11 June 2025
Her characters were women whose roles often implied their own eventual replacements: teachers, fading former love interests, fuddy-duddy old-fashioned relics.
—Kathryn Vanarendonk, Vulture, 27 Sep. 2024
The good news is that for every fuddy-duddy like myself who can’t seem to get on board with crowdfunding kids’ lives, there are twice as many generous, kind-hearted individuals willing to give a little—or a lot—toward schools, sports, and charities.
—Melissa Willets, Parents, 3 Feb. 2024
Another group of screenwriters have mocked Ms. Lombardini online as a fuddy-duddy who hangs out at chain restaurants, the taunt being that no Hollywood person would be caught dead in one.
—John Koblin, New York Times, 28 Aug. 2023
Noun
The father, Buddy Smart (Bryan Cranston), is the clan’s second-rate crackpot visionary, a cockeyed optimist who dresses in fuddy-duddy jackets and never knows where the next paycheck is coming from.
—Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 11 June 2025
Her characters were women whose roles often implied their own eventual replacements: teachers, fading former love interests, fuddy-duddy old-fashioned relics.
—Kathryn Vanarendonk, Vulture, 27 Sep. 2024
The good news is that for every fuddy-duddy like myself who can’t seem to get on board with crowdfunding kids’ lives, there are twice as many generous, kind-hearted individuals willing to give a little—or a lot—toward schools, sports, and charities.
—Melissa Willets, Parents, 3 Feb. 2024
Another group of screenwriters have mocked Ms. Lombardini online as a fuddy-duddy who hangs out at chain restaurants, the taunt being that no Hollywood person would be caught dead in one.
—John Koblin, New York Times, 28 Aug. 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fuddy-duddy
Noun
-
The measure also outperformed expectations in the conservative-leaning Inland Empire.—
Daniel Lempres,
Sacbee.com,
6 Nov. 2025
-
Donors poured tens of thousands of dollars into one Boise City Council race where two progressive former allies faced off against a local conservative.—
Idaho Statesman,
Idaho Statesman,
5 Nov. 2025
Adjective
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Still, Scherzinger was fascinated with the way the enfant terrible’s brain worked and his ability to attract a new generation of theatergoers to London’s once-stodgy West End.—
Tatiana Siegel,
Variety,
28 Oct. 2025
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One team looked sloppy, stodgy, prone to silly penalties, indifferent to tackling and mentally soft.—
Sean Keeler,
Denver Post,
11 Oct. 2025
Noun
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The agreement includes bipartisan bills worked out by the Senate Appropriations Committee to fund parts of government — food aid, veterans programs and the legislative branch, among other things.—
Orianna Rosa Royle,
Fortune,
10 Nov. 2025
-
Mills and the Texans’ offense scored a touchdown on all three of their fourth-quarter drives, including the veteran quarterback capping a 14-play, 93-yard drive with a 14-yard run to complete the comeback and give Houston a 30-29 lead — its first of the game.—
Scott Thompson,
FOXNews.com,
10 Nov. 2025
Adjective
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But something about the work’s improbable balancing act—the small dowdy base exerting enough gravity to keep the rest airborne—breathes energy into the air around it.—
Susan Tallman,
New Yorker,
23 Oct. 2025
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Bonus points for Sarah Sherman’s dowdy character, who accidentally got on the Epstein list.—
Rima Parikh,
Vulture,
5 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Old fogey-ish, ungrateful and stupid.—
Katie Hafner,
Scientific American,
10 Sep. 2025
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These are people who know AI and have grown up with this stuff that these old fogies haven't.—
Alison Snyder,
Axios,
23 Feb. 2025
Adjective
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His narrators—never too distinct from the author himself—relish exploring their childhoods in the Sovietized Bulgaria of the nineteen-seventies and eighties, measuring that artificially ossified world against modern consumerist Europe.—
James Wood,
New Yorker,
3 Nov. 2025
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Poking out of the vertical wall of a cutbank in a seasonally dry river was a vertebra – part of the backbone – and some ossified tendons.—
Paul C. Sereno,
The Conversation,
24 Oct. 2025
Noun
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Bostwick starred as the naive stick-in-the-mud and fiancé of Janice, Brad.—
Skyler Trepel,
PEOPLE,
31 Oct. 2025
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In the Herbert Ross film, Bacon played big-city teen Ren McCormack, who moves to the small town of Bomont, where its stick-in-the-mud local minster, the Rev. Shaw Moore (John Lithgow), has instituted a ban on dancing.—
EW.com,
EW.com,
9 Nov. 2023
Cite this Entry
“Fuddy-duddy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fuddy-duddy. Accessed 15 Nov. 2025.
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