tawdry

1 of 2

adjective

taw·dry ˈtȯ-drē

ˈtä-

tawdrier; tawdriest

Synonyms of tawdry next

: cheap and gaudy in appearance or quality

tawdry clothing/jewels

tawdry furniture

"Well, I found myself seated in a horrid little private box … I looked out from behind the curtain and surveyed the house. It was a tawdry affair, all Cupids and cornucopias, like a third-rate wedding-cake."—

Oscar Wilde

Any trip there carries with it more than its share of drabness, tawdry hotels and second-rate service, all of which tax the forbearance of the most patient traveler.—

John F. Burns

: morally sordid, base, or distasteful

a tawdry scandal

a tawdry love affair

a tawdry attempt to smear his opponent

Setting aside the tawdry manner in which his marriage had (publicly) unraveled, the mayor's combative style had begun to grate on many New Yorkers.—

Jonathan Mahler

tawdrily

ˈtȯ-drə-lē

ˈtä-

adverb

tawdriness

ˈtȯ-drē-nəs

ˈtä-

noun

tawdry

2 of 2

noun

: cheap showy finery

Did you know?

In the 7th century, Etheldreda, the queen of Northumbria, renounced her husband and her royal position in order to become a nun. She was renowned for her saintliness and is said to have died of a swelling in her throat, which she took as a judgment upon her fondness for wearing necklaces in her youth. Her shrine became a principal site of pilgrimage in England. An annual fair was held in her honor on October 17th, and her name became simplified to St. Audrey. At these fairs various kinds of cheap knickknacks were sold, along with a type of necklace called St. Audrey's lace, which by the 16th century had become altered to tawdry lace. Eventually, tawdry came to be used to describe anything cheap and gaudy that might be found at these fairs or anywhere else.

Choose the Right Synonym for tawdry

gaudy, tawdry, garish, flashy, meretricious mean vulgarly or cheaply showy.

gaudy implies a tasteless use of overly bright, often clashing colors or excessive ornamentation.

circus performers in gaudy costumes

tawdry applies to what is at once gaudy and cheap and sleazy.

tawdry saloons

garish describes what is distressingly or offensively bright.

garish neon signs

flashy implies an effect of brilliance quickly and easily seen to be shallow or vulgar.

a flashy nightclub act

meretricious stresses falsity and may describe a tawdry show that beckons with a false allure or promise.

a meretricious wasteland of casinos and bars

Examples of tawdry in a Sentence

Adjective The scandal was a tawdry affair.

Recent Examples on the Web

Adjective

Other films with tacky, tawdry titles that begged for straight-to-video release include: Liquid Dreams (1991), The Crazysitter (1994), A Dirty Shame (2004), Sunny & Share Love You (2007), and Becoming Blond (2012). —

Daniel Scheffler, SPIN, 1 Apr. 2024 Talking heads Rachel Maddow, Jonathan Capehart, Lawrence O’Donnell, Joy Reid, Joe Scarborough, and Chuck Todd complained on the air about McDaniel, as if her presence would sully the uniformity — and sanctity — of their tawdry partisan terrain. —

Armond White, National Review, 29 Mar. 2024 What this role really gives her, besides the opportunity to dig her teeth into tawdry dialogue along with her castmates (everyone gets a shot at speaking these swearing showstoppers), is a bid for being crowned the Queen of Reaction Shots. —

David Fear, Rolling Stone, 27 Mar. 2024 Old Casey Stengel is a hero, even if the author is aware that this is just a contest being played for money by men of dubious honor and tawdry appetites. —

Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 25 Mar. 2024 His legacy is that all of us who are terrible singers can live out our tawdriest pop-star dreams for a few minutes of karaoke glory. —

Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 16 Mar. 2024 His story is one of a hero, who rises to a challenge and succeeds unexpectedly; and also that a hero can fail tragically, be misunderstood, be subject to the low, crass, self-interested side of human nature, of tawdry rumors and politics, be attacked, to be canceled. —

Charles Oppenheimer, Variety, 27 Feb. 2024 The new ones look tawdry and a little swagless, like replica jerseys. —

Amanda Mull, The Atlantic, 20 Feb. 2024 American Nightmare is a strong offering from what has quickly become a tired and often tawdry documentary genre. —

Chris Vognar, Rolling Stone, 20 Jan. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tawdry.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.