fuddy-duddy

See also: fuddyduddy

English

Alternative forms

• fuddyduddy

Etymology

Unknown, c. 1900 US

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfʌdiˌdʌdi/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌdi

Noun

fuddy-duddy (plural fuddy-duddies)

1. (US, informal) An old-fashioned, persnickety or ineffective person.

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

Derived terms

• fuddy-duddery
• fuddy-duddyism
• fudd

Adjective

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

1. (US, informal) Old-fashioned and persnickety or ineffective.
   • 2015, Mary Ellen Snodgrass, Barbara Kingsolver: A Literary Companion, McFarland, →ISBN, page 4:

     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, […]