tawdry
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈtɔːdɹi/
ipa: /ˈtɔ.dɹi/
ipa: /ˈtɑ.dɹi/
rhymes: -ɔːdɹi
Forms: form: tawdrier
form: tawdriest
Etymology: Shortened from tawdry lace; originally a corruption and rebracketing of Saint Audrey lace (from Old English Æðelþrȳð). The lace necklaces sold to pilgrims to Saint Audrey fell out of fashion in the 17th century, and so tawdry was reinterpreted as meaning “cheap” or “vulgar”.
Senses: examples: text: The rest of his dress—a dress always sufficiently tawdry—was overcharged with lace, embroidery, and ornament of every kind, and the plume of feathers which he wore was so high, as if intended to sweep the roof of the hall.
ref: 1823, Sir Walter Scott, chapter 33, in Quentin Durward:
text: This wasn't really a room for me; the green curtains before the windows were rather tawdry, and there was anything but an abundance of nails on the walls for hanging one's wardrobe.
ref: 1890, Knut Hamsen, translated by Sverre Lyngstad, Sult (Hunger), Paperback, 2016 edition, Canongate Books, Ltd., Part One, page 34:
text: It was all cheap and incredibly tawdry, from the festoons of paper roses on the walls to the flash of paste jewels in make-believe crowns.
ref: 1917, Alice Hegan Rice, chapter 20, in Calvary Alley:
text: So now you just want cheap thrills and plenty of 'em and it don't^([sic]) matter how tawdry or vacuous they are as long as it's new, as long as it's new, as long as it flashes and fucking bleeps in 40 fucking different colours.
ref: 1993, Mike Leigh, Naked, spoken by Johnny (David Thewlis):
synonyms: word: bedizened
word: blatant
word: blingish
word: brash
word: catchpenny
word: chichi
word: chintzy
word: crass
word: crude
word: flashy
word: flaunting
word: florid
word: flossy
word: froufrou
word: garish
word: gauche
word: gaudy
word: gay
word: glaring
word: gross
word: gussied up
word: hideous
word: kitschy
word: loud
word: meretricious
word: obtrusive
word: ostentatious
word: pizazzy
word: pretentious
word: ritzy
word: raffish
word: showy
word: snazzy
word: splendiferous
word: tacky
word: tasteless
word: tawdry
word: tinselly
word: too much
word: unbecoming
word: untasteful
word: vain
word: whorish
word: zesty
qualifier: appearance
glosses: Cheap and gaudy; showy.
raw_tags: of clothing
examples: text: [T]he "greaser" was a dirty, idle, shiftless, treacherous, tawdry vagabond, dwelling in a disgracefully primitive house, and backward in every aspect of civilization.
ref: 1918, Stewart Edward White, chapter 1, in The Forty-Niners:
text: The woman's passion by his side seemed suddenly tawdry and unreal, the seeking of her lips for his something horrible.
ref: 1920, E. Phillips Oppenheim, chapter 16, in The Great Impersonation:
text: After months of flat-out lying to the public, former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards finally copped to having a sleazy extramarital fling […] The tawdry affair has dogged Edwards over the past few months.
ref: 2008 August 9, Clemente Lisi, “Lusty Lies of Don Juan John”, in New York Post, retrieved 16 Dec 2013:
topics: behavior
human-sciences
psychology
sciences
synonyms: sordid
qualifier: situations
glosses: Unseemly, base, mean-spirited, shameful.
raw_tags: of character
Derived terms: tawdrily
tawdriness