Tawdry Definition

tôdrē
tawdrier, tawdriest
adjective
tawdrier, tawdriest
Cheap and showy; gaudy; sleazy.
Webster's New World
Shameful or indecent.
Tawdry secrets.
American Heritage

(of character, behavior, situations, etc.) Unseemly, base, shameful.

Wiktionary
Antonyms:
noun
Cheap and gaudy finery.
American Heritage

Other Word Forms of Tawdry

Adjective

Base Form:
tawdry
Comparative:
tawdrier
Superlative:
tawdriest

Origin of Tawdry

  • From tawdry lace lace necktie alteration of Saint Audrey's lace (sold at the annual Saint Audrey's fair, Ely, England) after Saint Audrey (Saint Etheldreda), queen of Northumbria, who died in 679 of a throat tumor, supposedly because she delighted in fancy necklaces as a young woman

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

  • Shortened from tawdry lace.

    From Wiktionary

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tawdry