stodgy
Americanadjective
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heavy, dull, or uninteresting; tediously commonplace; boring.
a stodgy Victorian novel.
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of a thick, semisolid consistency; heavy, as food.
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stocky; thick-set.
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old-fashioned; unduly formal and traditional.
a stodgy old gentleman.
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dull; graceless; inelegant.
a stodgy business suit.
adjective
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(of food) heavy or uninteresting
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excessively formal and conventional
Other Word Forms
- stodgily adverb
- stodginess noun
Etymology
Origin of stodgy
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.
The equal-weight index is off to one of its best starts to a year in decades as stodgy stocks get rediscovered.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 11, 2026
And at the heart of it all is a stodgy playing style which has not won enough matches, or favour with Spurs fans.
From BBC • Jan. 9, 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
Three months on, amid accusations of overreliance on corners and squandered chances, of streamlined attacking tactics and a stodgy midfield, the Mourinho comparison feels both increasingly apt and unwanted.
From BBC • Jan. 17, 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
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.
