stodgy

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

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

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

Washington used to be a stodgier place where power followed clearer-cut roles: politicians, lobbyists, consultants, business executives and journalists all kept in their lanes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 11, 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

It was always a more polite but stodgier version of “Crossfire” — a cancelled format co-created by Buchanan.

From Salon ● Aug. 18, 2019

As shrewd as he is angry, Jordan's Erik Killmonger is a different kind of bad guy: one whose tragic origin story and well-argued motivations make him at times more sympathetic than the stodgier, stingier hero.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 28, 2018

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

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

Of the 11 sectors that make up the S&P 500, the ones seen as the stodgiest have been the best recently.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 28, 2019