Crossword clues for tawdry
tawdry
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Tawdry \Taw"dry\, a. [Compar. Tawdrier; superl. Tawdriest.] [Said to be corrupted from Saint Audrey, or Auldrey, meaning Saint Ethelreda, implying therefore, originally, bought at the fair of St. Audrey, where laces and gay toys of all sorts were sold. This fair was held in Isle Ely, and probably at other places, on the day of the saint, which was the 17th of October.]
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Bought at the festival of St. Audrey. [Obs.]
And gird in your waist, For more fineness, with a tawdry lace.
--Spenser. -
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.
He rails from morning to night at essenced fops and tawdry courtiers.
--Spectator.
Tawdry \Taw"dry\, n.; pl. Tawdries. A necklace of a rural fashion, bought at St. Audrey's fair; hence, a necklace in general. [Obs.]
Of which the Naiads and the blue Nereids make
Them tawdries for their necks.
--Drayton.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"no longer fresh or elegant but worn as if it were so; in cheap and ostentatious imitation of what is rich or costly," 1670s, adjective use of noun tawdry "silk necktie for women" (1610s), shortened from tawdry lace (1540s), an alteration (with adhesion of the -t- from Saint) of St. Audrey's lace, a necktie or ribbon sold at the annual fair at Ely on Oct. 17 commemorating St. Audrey (queen of Northumbria, died 679). Her association with lace necklaces is that she supposedly died of a throat tumor, which, according to Bede, she considered God's punishment for her youthful stylishness. Related: Tawdriness.\n\n"I know of a surety that I deservedly bear the weight of my trouble on my neck, for I remember that, when I was a young maiden, I bore on it the needless weight of necklaces; and therefore I believe the Divine goodness would have me endure the pain in my neck, that so I may be absolved from the guilt of my needless levity, having now, instead of gold and pearls, the fiery heat of a tumour rising on my neck."
[A.M. Sellar translation, 1907]
Wiktionary
a. 1 (context of clothing, appearance, etc. English) cheap and gaudy; showy. 2 (context of character, behavior, situations, etc. English) unseemly, base, shameful.
WordNet
adj. tastelessly showy; "a flash car"; "a flashy ring"; "garish colors"; "a gaudy costume"; "loud sport shirts"; "a meretricious yet stylish book"; "tawdry ornaments" [syn: brassy, cheap, flash, flashy, garish, gaudy, gimcrack, loud, meretricious, tacky, tatty, trashy]
cheap and shoddy; "cheapjack moviemaking...that feeds on the low taste of the mob"- Judith Crist [syn: cheapjack, shoddy]
Usage examples of "tawdry".
The Pope would die and the circus would actually begin with the tawdry tinkle of the hurdy-gurdy and monkeys on chains, the trumpet fanfare of a Fellini movie and the clowns and all the freaks and aerialists joining hands, dancing, capering across the screen.
Murdered one night outside a tawdry ambisexual cruising bar in the port city of Soward.
I stood by the viewall, looking out across megalopolis, and it was tawdry.
I see them in the corners of my eyes: the nuggets of reality hidden in the tawdry, skanky mosaic that is Legend.
Taaffe -- which does not imply that blame for any of the unrealistic or tawdry aspects of the Metaverse should be placed on anyone but me.
How entirely men misconceive the relation of style to thought may be seen in the replies they make when their writing is objected to, or in the ludicrous attempts of clumsy playfulness and tawdry eloquence when they wish to be regarded as writers.
Beside the Pursuivant rode a Witch in tawdry finery, and next to her an Invigilator, lean in form-fitting leathers painted with cat stripes.
Lady Rangle could afford the best, but their very newness made them tawdry.
The place had been almost full when she and Spens entered, the bright coats and lace-edged ruffles of the men and the overly tawdry finery of the local girls and pretty boys half obscured by veils of blue tobacco smoke.
Her high cheekbones resembled those of an elfin queen, her skin rosy yet unafflicted by tawdry make-up.
Certainly not this tawdry, brassy, blousey woman waggling her tongue at him across the table.
Now my breechclout concealed the broad belt, and the scabbard flapped against my legs, empty, Galna let me keep those, as he supposed, tawdry souvenirs of my struggle.
We marched again, in search of new conquests, but before I left I slipped the gorgeous tunic over the head of that effigy of mine, making the other featherwork look tawdry in comparison, and I promised the priest, whose care it was, that the circle of conquest I had begun should be broadened until we had scured enough feathers of the Nuitziton to cover the effigy completely.
The manuscript that she and the ghostwriter produced was thin but sufficiently tawdry in content to become an instant bestseller.
Beside the Pursuivant rode a Witch in tawdry finery, and next to her an Invigilator, lean in form-fitting leathers painted with cat stripes.