stodgy
Americanadjective
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heavy, dull, or uninteresting; tediously commonplace; boring.
a stodgy Victorian novel.
-
of a thick, semisolid consistency; heavy, as food.
-
stocky; thick-set.
-
old-fashioned; unduly formal and traditional.
a stodgy old gentleman.
-
dull; graceless; inelegant.
a stodgy business suit.
adjective
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(of food) heavy or uninteresting
-
excessively formal and conventional
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of stodgy
Explanation
The Queen's guards outside Buckingham Palace might seem stodgy (or stuffy and stuck-up), but they are only doing their job. Stodgy is an adjective to describe anything dull, out-of-style, or even hard to digest. Just your luck getting stuck sitting next to stodgy Aunt Irma at Thanksgiving! From the looks of her stodgy moth-smelling clothes to her stodgy or dull conversation, chances are it will be a long meal. Just hope the mashed potatoes are light and fluffy.
Vocabulary lists containing stodgy
This Is Not a Drill: Synonyms for "Boring"
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"Slam: Performance Poetry Lives On" and "Euphoria"
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The World Is Flat
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Specializing in a stodgy subject like religion, the military or law enforcement—especially if one has anything positive to say—is as unfashionable as flaunting a fur coat.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
Tuning in for some TV takes: Netflix’s binge-drop model disrupted the stodgy rhythms of old-school TV.
From Slate ● Jul. 23, 2026
Cold noodles need a dressing with enough substance to coat every curve and ridge, but enough brightness to keep the bowl from feeling stodgy after a few hours in the fridge.
From Salon ● Jul. 8, 2026
Putnam’s post-Earhart life was a roller coaster of cash woes and notoriety; the following year he staged his own kidnapping, alienating his stodgy publishing community.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 11, 2025
I was expecting a stodgy, older gentleman who’d offer me canned encomiums about Hopkins and then stiffen and ask for the check when he found out the details of my standardized test scores.
From "The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates" by Wes Moore
In recent days, software stocks and other risky assets have been mowed down by artificial intelligence, but stodgier stocks are springing up to replace them among the market’s leaders.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 6, 2026
Overall, viewers get a ridiculously entertaining and colorful nostalgia trip that may be impossible to believe would have existed in the stodgier 1950s.
From Washington Times ● Apr. 22, 2022
The Star was known as a writer’s paper, often more creative and entertaining than the stodgier Post.
From New York Times ● Jan. 7, 2022
It was always a more polite but stodgier version of “Crossfire” — a cancelled format co-created by Buchanan.
From Salon ● Aug. 18, 2019
Angel cake, that melted in the mouth, and his rather stodgier companion bursting with peel and raisins.
From "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier
The reason lies in LinkedIn’s oldest and stodgiest rule.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 7, 2026
It was the biggest, the stodgiest, the most arrogant.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 4, 2021
The oldest and stodgiest — the Vietnam-era B-52 — will go last.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 24, 2020
Seems a man named Frank Rosenberg, a Texas oil man, wanted to get into Los Angeles Country Club, the West Coast version of the stodgiest and most exclusive club in the world.
From Golf Digest ● Mar. 30, 2020
What unites so many of these shows is a love for that stodgiest of TV ideas: There should be a new story in every new episode.
From Slate ● Dec. 12, 2019
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
