Word.ws English Dictionary

stick in the mud

/ˈstɪk.ɪn.ðəˌmʌd/

stick in the mud noun: a person unwilling to participate in activities; a curmudgeon or party pooper.

Noun

stick in the mud (plural sticks in the mud or stick in the muds)

  1. (derogatory, idiomatic) A person unwilling to participate in activities; a curmudgeon or party pooper.
    • Have a little fun sometimes and don't be such a stick-in-the-mud.
    • "I don't hold back like you do. Even Tedd's dad can tell you're a stick-in-the-mud. That's why he made you the supervisor of this party."2005 November 9, Dan Shive, El Goonish Shive (webcomic), Comic for Wednesday, Nov 9, 2005
  2. (derogatory, idiomatic) More generally, one who is slow, old-fashioned, or unprogressive; an old fogey.
    • There’s a parallel here: the idea of Barbie dolls being in any way noxious seems, in the current climate, to be as hopelessly stick-in-the-mud a stance as the concept of selling out.2023 July 19, Caspar Salmon, “Has Barbie killed the indie director? Why credible film-makers are selling out”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

Synonyms of stick in the mud

Forms of stick in the mud

pluralsticks in the mud
pluralstick in the muds
alternative formstick-in-the-mud

Questions about stick in the mud

What does stick in the mud mean?
Stick in the mud means a person unwilling to participate in activities; a curmudgeon or party pooper.
What part of speech is stick in the mud?
Stick in the mud is a noun.
How do you pronounce stick in the mud?
Stick in the mud is pronounced /ˈstɪk.ɪn.ðəˌmʌd/.
What is the plural of stick in the mud?
The plural of stick in the mud is sticks in the mud.

Words near stick in the mud in the dictionary

  1. stick in one's gizzard
  2. stick in one’s ass
  3. stick in someone's craw
  4. stick in someone's gullet
  5. stick in someone's throat
  6. stick in the mud
  7. stick in the muds
  8. stick insect
  9. stick insects
  10. stick it
  11. stick it out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stick in the mud (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-stick in the mud.ogg, en-au-stick in the mud.ogg.

Cite this entry: “stick in the mud.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/stick_in_the_mud. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.