Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈtɔːdɹi/
tawdry (uncountable)
- (obsolete) Tawdry lace. [17th c.]
- (obsolete) Anything gaudy and cheap; pretentious finery. [17th–19th c.]
- 1748, Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, Letter 65:
- That fiddling, parading fellow (you know who I mean) made us wait for him two hours […] only for the sake of having a little more tawdry upon his housings […].
- 1748, Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, Letter 65:
tawdry (comparative tawdrier, superlative tawdriest)
- (of clothing, appearance, etc.) Cheap and gaudy; showy.
- (of character, behavior, situations, etc.) Unseemly, base, shameful.
- 2008 August 9, Clemente Lisi, "Lusty Lies of Don Juan John ↗," New York Post (retrieved 16 Dec 2013):
- 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.
- 2008 August 9, Clemente Lisi, "Lusty Lies of Don Juan John ↗," New York Post (retrieved 16 Dec 2013):
- (of clothing, personal appearance, etc.) See Thesaurus:gaudy
- (unseemly, base, shameful) sordid
- French: kitsch, tape-à-l’œil
- German: kitschig
- Portuguese: espalhafatoso e mixuruca
- Russian: безвку́сный
- Spanish: hortera, chabacano, charro
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