tawdry

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“
It's just cheap and tawdry, which is what FOX is about anyways. upright left Says:

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Definitions (10)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. adjective Gaudy and cheap in nature or appearance. See Synonyms at gaudy1.
  2. adjective Shameful or indecent: tawdry secrets.
  3. noun Cheap and gaudy finery.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (3)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • It had not come from his garden Blood Pith Crux Kelly Hale The inspiration for this story is embarrassing, tawdry, and kind of pathetic. —  AEon Four
  • It's just cheap and tawdry, which is what FOX is about anyways. upright left Says: —  Think Progress
  • It's hard to steer a course between dewy and tawdry, and almost impossible to avoid cliches. —  Home | Mail Online
  • Darwinism reveals the creation myth as a tawdry, one-dimensional, cheap, vulgar and stultifying unimaginative narrative-utterly lacking in any real poetry, wonder and mystery. —  www.philadelphiaweekly.com Philadelphia Weekly
  • Many fancy shapes also are obtainable, but they are inclined to look tawdry, and suggestive of the pantomime Cloth of Gold and Silver._--This is a fabric manufactured of silk, with gold or silver thread inwoven in the making. —  Embroidery and Tapestry Weaving
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

gaudy ·  showy ·  meretricious ·  ostentatious ·  gorgeous ·  flashy ·  sumptuous ·  costly ·  dingy ·  threadbare ·  shabby ·  florid
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. 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.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Formerly also tawdrie, taudry; orig. in the phrase or compound tawdry lace, tawdrie lace, i. e. *Saint Audrey lace, a lace bought at St. Audrey's fair, held (it is said) at the shrine of St. Audrey in the isle of Ely. Audrey, Awdrey, formerly also Audry, Awdry, is a corruption of Etheldrida, which is a Latinized form of Anglo-Saxon Æthelthry¯th, Ætheldry¯th, Ætheldrīth, Ætheldry¯ht.
 

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/ˈtɔdri/
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