tawdry Hear it!

tawdry Definition

taw·dry (drē)

adjective -·drier, -·dri·est

cheap and showy; gaudy; sleazy

Etymology: by syllabic merging of St. Audrey, esp. in St. Audrey laces, women's neckpieces sold at St. Audrey's fair in Norwich, England

tawdry Related Forms

taw·dri·ness noun

tawdry Synonyms

tawdry

modif.

sleazy, showy, gaudy, garish, tacky*; see also common 1, poor 2.

tawdry Usage Examples

Modifies a noun

  • affair: In Executive Power, the president is conducting a tawdry affair with a young White House aide.
  • show: You thought it was just another tawdry late-night TV show.
  • world: We get a wonderfully balanced birdseye view of the tawdry, neon world of Vegas.
  • tale: No doubt more of this tawdry tale will come out in the weeks to come!
  • glamor: Visually the whole production convincingly replicated the tawdry glamor of the underbelly of the Great American Dream.
  • spectacle: Postmodernists who criticize Adorno for denouncing the tawdry spectacle of consumer culture have no conception of his vision of what things could be.

Modifying Another Word

  • rather: Some people feel that its immense popularity has turned it into a rather tawdry version of its former self.
  • often: Real seaside jolliness is not self consciously artful, it has a robust vulgarity and is often tawdry.

Used with adjective complement

seem: Here some of the shops stock pricey designer-label clothes, while others seem rather tawdry.

Browse dictionary entries near tawdry

  1. taw
  2. taverner
  3. taverna
  4. tavern
  5. tav
  6. tautonym
  7. tautomerism
  8. tautomer
  9. tautology
  10. tautologous
  1. Tawney
  2. Tawney, R
  3. Tawney, R(ichard) H(enry)
  4. tawny
  5. tawse
  6. tax
  7. tax abatement
  8. tax anticipation note
  9. tax audit
  10. tax avoidance