Definition of tawdry Tawdry
/tɔˈdɹi/ - [todree] - taw•dry
We found 9 definitions of tawdry from 6 different sources.
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What does tawdry mean?
WordNet
Adjective |
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| tawdry - tastelessly showy; "a flash car"; "a flashy ring"; "garish colors"; "a gaudy costume"; "loud sport shirts"; "a meretricious yet stylish book"; "tawdry ornaments" | ||
| brassy, cheap, flash, flashy, garish, gaudy, gimcrack, loud, meretricious, tacky, tatty, trashy | ||
| tasteless lacking aesthetic or social taste | ||
| tawdry - cheap and shoddy; "cheapjack moviemaking...that feeds on the low taste of the mob"- Judith Crist | ||
| cheapjack, shoddy | ||
| inferior of or characteristic of low rank or importance | ||
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Webster DictionaryWebster's Unabridged Dictionary 📘
- tawdry (superl.)
Bought at the festival of St. Audrey. - tawdry (superl.)
Very fine and showy in colors, without taste or elegance; having an excess of showy ornaments without grace; cheap and gaudy; as, a tawdry dress; tawdry feathers; tawdry colors. - tawdry (n.)
A necklace of a rural fashion, bought at St. Audrey's fair; hence, a necklace in general.
Chambers DictionaryChamber's 20th Century Dictionary 📕
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tawdry
taw′dri, adj. showy without taste: gaudily dressed.—adj. Taw′dered, tawdrily dressed.—adv. Taw′drily.—n. Taw′driness.—n.pl. Taw′drums, finery. [Said to be corr. from St Awdrey=St Ethelreda, at whose fair (17th October) laces and gay toys were sold.]
Vulgar Tongue DictionaryDictionary of the Vulgar Tongue 👅
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tawdry
Garish, gawdy, with lace or staring and discordant colours: a term said to be derived from the shrine and altar of St. Audrey (an Isle of Ely saintess), which for finery exceeded all others thereabouts, so as to become proverbial; whence any fine dressed man or woman said to be all St Audrey, and by contraction, all tawdry.
Part of speech
🔤- tawdry, noun, singular of tawdries.
- tawdry, adjective.
Pronunciation
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