stick-in-the-mud

as in conservative
a person with old-fashioned ideas the committee is dominated by old stick-in-the-muds who have little interest in bringing new ideas to the table

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

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 stick-in-the-mud 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, 9 Nov. 2023 David Corenswet plays, quite literally, a stick-in-the-mud character. Brian Davids, The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Sep. 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for stick-in-the-mud
Noun
  • This all comes amid multiple feuds between the ADL and several Christian conservatives, including podcasters Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson, and concerns over the rise in antisemitism and whether free speech is being stifled in the name of combating it.
    Jordan King, MSNBC Newsweek, 1 Oct. 2025
  • Earle-Sears has campaigned at northern Virginia school boards against inclusive LGBTQ policies in schools and accused Democrats of fostering violent hate against conservatives.
    David Weigel, semafor.com, 30 Sep. 2025
Noun
  • The veteran safety, one of only two first-string defensive backs to start and finish the game Sunday, sat alone in his locker still draped in nearly all his game attire, minus the jersey and shoulder pads.
    Michael-Shawn Dugar, New York Times, 6 Oct. 2025
  • The veteran forward brought his family to live with him in Miami and dedicated the second half of his summer to getting acclimated to the area.
    Anthony Chiang, Miami Herald, 5 Oct. 2025
Noun
  • Old fogey-ish, ungrateful and stupid.
    Katie Hafner, Scientific American, 10 Sep. 2025
  • 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
Noun
  • Among the party’s goals are redistributing wealth, taxing the very rich, making rail and energy publicly owned, standing up to fossil-fuel giants, and ending arms sales to Israel.
    Arash Azizi, The Atlantic, 4 Oct. 2025
  • From the Elgol dinosaur to the Krusatodon or the world’s largest pterosaur fossil from the Jurassic period, fossils found here have shaped our understanding of the prehistoric world.
    Irene Wright, Miami Herald, 3 Oct. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Stick-in-the-mud.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/stick-in-the-mud. Accessed 8 Oct. 2025.

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