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
Susan Tallman, The Atlantic, 13 June 2026
For someone who’s constantly on speakerphone, Tommy sure is a fuddy-duddy about using it correctly.
—William Earl, Variety, 30 Nov. 2025
To some, Superman is a fuddy-duddy in a cape.
—Ken Makin, Christian Science Monitor, 9 July 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
In the years that followed, American landscape painting was shuffled off to storage to make room for modernism, and paintings like Church’s, with their glassy finishes and profuse detail, came to seem the embodiment of fuddy-duddy.
—Susan Tallman, The Atlantic, 13 June 2026
For someone who’s constantly on speakerphone, Tommy sure is a fuddy-duddy about using it correctly.
—William Earl, Variety, 30 Nov. 2025
To some, Superman is a fuddy-duddy in a cape.
—Ken Makin, Christian Science Monitor, 9 July 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
-
Basham is a culture reporter for the conservative The Daily Wire who has been accused of promoting anti-Muslim ideas.—
Adam Harrington,
CBS News,
10 June 2026
-
But the statements have become unpopular among Japanese conservatives who say Japan should stop focusing on negative history to restore national pride.—
Mari Yamaguchi,
Los Angeles Times,
10 June 2026
Adjective
-
If the dip still feels a bit stodgy, try adding a little more tahini or olive oil to smooth it out.—
Karla Walsh,
Better Homes & Gardens,
2 June 2026
-
United produced a string of stodgy displays in February and March.—
Carl Anka,
New York Times,
3 May 2026
Noun
-
In goal, the team has brought back veteran goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa, who allowed just three goals in the three games in Qatar.—
Andrew Greif,
NBC news,
12 June 2026
-
Cabrera is a veteran of both the MPWW and the Minnesota carceral system, and joins Lost Kite as a multimedia editor.—
Brittany Allen,
Literary Hub,
11 June 2026
Adjective
-
Like sparks igniting, the result is a piece that feels alive with energy rather than a dowdy relic of the past.—
Paige Reddinger,
Robb Report,
17 May 2026
-
Reed was not the typical dowdy or frumpy critic.—
Duane Byrge,
HollywoodReporter,
12 May 2026
Noun
-
There’s no old fogey-ness to Lorne.—
David Fear,
Rolling Stone,
20 Apr. 2026
-
For the benefit of us old fogies?—
Sun Sentinel Editorial Board,
Sun Sentinel,
30 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
But rather than simply repeat the even-then ossified list of events leading to the invention of photography and the medium’s later innovations, the book uses a series of stories, reminiscences, and tall tales to describe how photography transformed everyday (and not so everyday) experience.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
27 Apr. 2026
-
Lockhart, a mathematician who taught first at Brown University and UC Santa Cruz and then for many years at Saint Ann’s, a progressive private school in Brooklyn, argues that the injury is due to our ossified K–12 mathematics curriculum.—
Dan Rockmore,
The New York Review of Books,
19 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
One only has to think about the British fight against Nazism to be reminded that it was made of imperialists, constitutionalists, stick-in-the-mud aristocrats, and the socialists who first helped put Winston Churchill into power and then five years later helped push him out again.—
Adam Gopnik,
New Yorker,
8 June 2026
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But opposing him is Stagg, a Scottish, stick-in-the-mud academic (which is saying a lot by most weather men’s personality standards), who insists on making the team’s joint recommendation exclusively using the current observational data available to Allied forces.—
Alison Foreman,
IndieWire,
26 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Fuddy-duddy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fuddy-duddy. Accessed 17 Jun. 2026.
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