fuddy-duddy

And not to be a fuddy-duddy, but I can think of many better uses, including using that desire to connect with people to motivate charity work, political organizing, or just throwing a dinner party.

From Salon ● Jan. 19, 2025

Showing the BBC around his former stomping ground, Harold's Café, he expressed confidence his cardigan-wearing "fuddy-duddy" character would live on.

From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2022

“She’s always very smartly turned out but appropriate for her age. Not so fuddy-duddy as she used to be.’

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 16, 2022

Spend a bit of time with any progressive teenager, and regardless of your trailblazing bona fides, you might quickly be reduced to a conservative fuddy-duddy.

From New York Times ● Aug. 19, 2021

Peacock But, I don't propose to marry my daughter to some old fuddy-duddy.

From La Tontine by Le Sage, Alain René

We tend to think of people from long ago as credulous, unsophisticated fuddy-duddies.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 13, 2021

Word-centric fuddy-duddies see the decline of literacy reflected in their heart-shaped eyes, while guardians of decorum lament the spread of greasy kid stuff dripping from the characters’ snail trails.

From New York Times ● Apr. 3, 2015

For self-consciously “edgy” believers, there’s Bad Christian, in which a pastor and two musicians razz each other and blast the fuddy-duddies who don’t get it.

From Slate ● Dec. 14, 2014

English Heritage objected, but who cared about the complaints of culturally conservative fuddy-duddies?

From The Guardian ● Aug. 19, 2011

You used an expression, dear,—old fuddy-duddies, was it?

From Three Margarets by Barry, Etheldred B. (Etheldred Breeze)