fuddy-duddy

/ˈfʌdiˌdʌdi/

noun

An old-fashioned, persnickety or ineffective person.

“My grandma is a fuddy-duddy when it comes to keeping her house clean.”

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Meanings

nounfuddy-duddy (plural fuddy-duddies)

plural fuddy-duddies · alternative fuddyduddy

  1. USinformalAn old-fashioned, persnickety or ineffective person.

    My grandma is a fuddy-duddy when it comes to keeping her house clean.

adjectivefuddy-duddy (comparative fuddy-duddier, superlative fuddy-duddiest)

comparative fuddy-duddier · superlative fuddy-duddiest · alternative fuddyduddy

  1. USinformalOld-fashioned and persnickety or ineffective.

    Kingsolver lives by the tenets of her public-spirited fictional characters, whom she sculpts with a keen eye for individuality, e.g. Nannie Land Rawley, a seventy-something orchardist who shocks a fuddy-duddy male neighbor by wearing shorts, […]

    2015, Mary Ellen Snodgrass, Barbara Kingsolver: A Literary Companion, McFarland, →ISBN, page 4

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
bluehairdinosaurfudd

Origin

Unknown. First attested in the US circa 1900.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with fuddy-duddy

studybuddymuddyruddycuddycruddyfloody
All rhymes →
Cite this entry
APA

fuddy-duddy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fuddy-duddy

MLA

“fuddy-duddy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fuddy-duddy. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “fuddy-duddy,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/fuddy-duddy.

Source: fuddy-duddy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.