tawdry

[taw-dree]

adjective

tawdrier, tawdriest 

1. (of finery, trappings, etc.) gaudy; showy and cheap.

   Synonyms: meretricious, flashy
   Antonyms: elegant

2. low or mean; base.

   tawdry motives.

noun

1. cheap, gaudy apparel.

tawdry

/ ˈtɔːdrɪ /

adjective

1. cheap, showy, and of poor quality

   tawdry jewellery

Other Word Forms

• tawdrily adverb
• tawdriness noun
• untawdry adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of tawdry¹

1605–15; short for ( Sain ) t Audrey lace, i.e., neck lace bought at St. Audrey's Fair in Ely, England; so called after St. Audrey ( Old English Aethelthrȳth, died 679), Northumbrian queen and patron saint of Ely, who, according to tradition, died of a throat tumor which she considered just punishment of her youthful liking for neck laces

Word History and Origins

Origin of tawdry¹

C16 tawdry lace, shortened and altered from Seynt Audries lace, finery sold at the fair of St Audrey (Etheldrida), 7th-century queen of Northumbria and patron saint of Ely, Cambridgeshire

Example Sentences

When the New Deal put a cop on the Wall Street beat, Dillon cleaned up his act and lived long enough to outlast the memory of his tawdry methods.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The book was filled with tawdry details, such as an anecdote about how Andrew licked the arches of her feet and shared a bath with her.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Yet “Venetian Vespers,” for all its moodiness, is elegantly compressed—the central drama occupies only a few days—and the conspiracy at its core is convincingly tawdry.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Against this enclave’s polished stone walls and bannisters, Lee looks every ragged inch of the tawdry menace the politicians and businessmen he squares off against expect him to be.

Read more on Salon

He called that meeting "the most vomit-inducing episode in all the tawdry history of international diplomacy".

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• sleazy 
• tacky 
• vulgar