From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishtawdrytaw‧dry /ˈtɔːdri $ ˈtɒː-/ adjective 1 CHEAPcheaply and badly made tawdry jewellery and fake furs2 showing low moral standards a tawdry tale of lies and deception —tawdriness noun [uncountable]
Examples from the Corpus
tawdry• His apartment was a tasteful disappointment, clashing with his tawdry appearance.• The place was all tawdry bars, dance-halls and flop-houses that were also houses of assignation.• Their known, nearly identical faces, slid by in a wave of tawdry dinner jackets, sequinned old lace.• A clothes-line hangs between two high windows, hovering above like a tawdry hammock from the sky.• tawdry jewelry• It seems a tawdry nightmare, looking back.• The more wonderful the means of communication, the more trivial, tawdry, or depressing its contents seemed to be.• a tawdry scandal• Everywhere you looked in this hour-long special, there was some tawdry scene being enacted.Origin tawdry (1600-1700) tawdry lace “necklace” ((16-18 centuries)), from St. Audrey's lace, from St. Audrey 7th-century queen of Northumbria, England; because it was originally sold at fairs in honor of St. Audrey 