as in boring
causing weariness, restlessness, or lack of interest the sitcom was offbeat and interesting in its first season, but has since become predictable and stodgy

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of stodgy Wyatt’s film somehow becomes a stodgy, sprawling, feminist, pre-Islamic Ghandi. Damon Wise, Deadline, 28 Sep. 2025 But her biggest achievement is the cultural change she’s helped affect: through her witty, tongue-in-cheek designs, she’s helped turn upcycling from a stodgy homeschoolers’ craft into an edgy and provocative response to consumerism at large. Corey Buhay, Outside, 15 Sep. 2025 Peter Pan is the avatar of eternal childhood, refusal to become a stodgy old pirate. Erik Kain, Forbes.com, 19 Aug. 2025 An attempt to open a cleaner, stodgier club in the old space was dead by 2007. Adriane Quinlan, Curbed, 11 Aug. 2025 See All Example Sentences for stodgy
Recent Examples of Synonyms for stodgy
Adjective
  • Despite looking like a fighter pilot who could win a game of dogfight football, Colin isn’t framed as a temptation for Marissa, and a lack of sexy secrets proves to be a recurring blind spot for the series, even if those two have plenty of other skeletons in their massive, boring closets.
    Ben Travers, IndieWire, 6 Nov. 2025
  • All this after Fern just wanted to renovate her boring bookseller life by starting over next to her orc pal Viv’s coffee shop!
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 3 Nov. 2025
Adjective
  • Tiles also exhibited hysteresis, which was smaller at slower speeds due to the rubber’s viscoelastic properties, as reported by Nanowerk.
    Jijo Malayil, Interesting Engineering, 2 Nov. 2025
  • Levi, an electrical engineer who founded MicroKits in 2020, has had to raise prices, slow production and pause plans to launch a new product – Banan-a-Synth – that lets kids turn a bunch of bananas into a kind of keyboard.
    Maureen Groppe, USA Today, 2 Nov. 2025
Adjective
  • The Chinese retailer, known for its range of cheap ultra-fast-fashion clothing and criticisms of its labor and environmental practices, is nestled on the sixth floor of a more than century-old building in Paris, a city famous for high-end fashion and a recent green push.
    Miranda Jeyaretnam, Time, 7 Nov. 2025
  • In contexts not concerning the elite private colleges of New England and their decades-old conflicts and syllabi and on-campus squabbles, this mode of prestige media procedure matters absolutely and enormously, at scales difficult to tabulate.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 7 Nov. 2025
Adjective
  • As that number decreases, exercises such as running and cycling will feel more challenging and tiring, and your endurance may decline as well.
    Alyssa Ages, Outside, 23 Oct. 2025
  • But Braun was solid before tiring and working through injuries that affected him on the ball over the final month last season.
    Troy Renck, Denver Post, 17 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • And that’s a stupid, dumb, mindless question.
    Lisa Gutierrez, Kansas City Star, 25 Oct. 2025
  • Dessert Week is the stupidest week, at least conceptually.
    Brian Moylan, Vulture, 24 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • Instead, watching Charles attempt to insert himself into the Garfield Administration by forging papers and sneaking into buildings feels repetitive and a bit dull.
    Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 6 Nov. 2025
  • Their life in Watertown had been ordinary, maybe even dull sometimes.
    Jamie Thompson, The Atlantic, 6 Nov. 2025
Adjective
  • And yet, for all my disdain, there's a morbid lovableness to Pattinson's portrayal that manages to disarm the weary cynic that's grown with age.
    Edward Segarra, USA Today, 31 Oct. 2025
  • But according to the song's very own author, the weary search for reasons is more the point than the restoration of belief.
    Ryan Coleman, Entertainment Weekly, 29 Oct. 2025
Adjective
  • This is not a dusty collection or hodgepodge of Gold Rush artifacts placed around a xeriscape.
    David Caraccio, Sacbee.com, 25 Oct. 2025
  • The old shelves with their dusty cans were gone, replaced by three wooden pillars, each with a small platform at chest height.
    David Wingrave, Harpers Magazine, 24 Oct. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Stodgy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/stodgy. Accessed 8 Nov. 2025.

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