[f. vbl. phr. to stick in the mud: see STICK v.1 11 b.] Contemptuously used for: A helpless or unprogressive person; one who lacks resource or initiative.
1733. Gen. Evening Post, 15–17, Nov., 2/1. George Fluster, alias Stick in the Mud, has made himself an Evidence, and impeached the above two Persons.
1733. Country Jrnl., 15 Dec., 2/1. James Baker, alias Stick in the Mud, and Francis Ogilby [were convicted].
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., x. This rusty-coloured one is that respectable old stick-in-the-mud, Nicias.
1886. W. H. Mallock, Old Order Changes, I. 280. She is such an old stick-in-the mud.
attrib. 1880. St. James’s Gaz., 23 Oct., 12. He was none of your humdrum, stick-in-the-mud, old-fashioned practitioners.
1886. Stevenson, Kidnapped, v. What a pleasure it was to get on shore with money in his pocket … and surprise what he called stick-in-the-mud boys.
