Green’s Dictionary of Slang

an old-fashioned, conservative person; also as a term of address.

1733		General Eve. Post 15–17 Nov. 2/1: George Fluster, alias Stick in the Mud, has made himself an Evidence, and impeached the above two Persons.
1821		W.T. Moncrieff Tom and Jerry II iv: Good night, old stick-in-the-mud.
1837		‘The Little Bit of Tape’ in Bentley’s Misc. Mar. 316: There you go, stick-in-the-mud!
1840		Flash Mirror 16: I dare say they kick’d up a dust [...] old stick in the mud.
1848		‘Ned Buntline’ Mysteries and Miseries of N.Y. IV 111: Well, what do you think, old stick-in-the-mud?
1858		R.S. Surtees Ask Mamma 371: Come along, old stick in the mud!
1861		T. Hughes Tom Brown at Oxford (1880) 97: This rusty-coloured one is that respectable old stick-in-the-mud, Nicias.
1880		Punch 10 Jan. 6: Shut up, old Stick-in-the-mud, and let’s join the ladies .
1899		A. Binstead Gal’s Gossip 166: Fanny Bobitwell’s ‘elderly stick-in-the-mud,’ as she invariably calls her hubby.
1908		A.N. Lyons Arthur’s 230: ‘Then the fellow you want is young Stick-in-the-Mud’ [...] And thus this tedious person was bequeathed to me.
1914		C. Holme Lonely Plough (1931) 83: It makes me tired to see the lot of you – narrow, ignorant stick-in-the-ditchers.
1919		‘Bartimeus’ ‘The Wooing of Mouldy Jakes’ in Awfully Big Adventure 30: Lady Manners is away. Gone to town with old Sir Stick-in-the-mud.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 418: O Poldy, Poldy, you are a poor old stick in the mud! Go and see life. See the wide world.
1934		D.L. Sayers Nine Tailors (1984) 186: He is a silly old stick-in-the-mud!
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 203: That Goldstein’s [...] kind of a stick-in-the-mud.
1953		T.A.G. Hungerford Riverslake 138: You are an old stick-in-the-mud, Paul!
1960		‘Hergé’ Tintin and the Red Sea Sharks 62: That old stick-in-the-mud.
1972		(con. 1916) G. Swarthout Tin Lizzie Troop (1978) 61: They were Good-time Charlies, he was a stick-in-the-mud.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 223: The impression that he is dealing with some kind of stick-in-the-mud.
1999		(con. 1956) C. Logue Prince Charming 218: Lionel is not so much of a stick-in-the-mud as you suggest.
2000		Indep. Rev. 10 Feb. 10: The creative team are a pair of art students who think you are a stick-in-the-mud.
2000		Newark Advocate (OH) sect. C 11 June 23/2: Me, Mrs Stick-in-the-Mud...Mrs Worry Wart.