| English Dictionary |
TAWDRY (tawdrier, tawdriest)
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
| IPA (US): |  |
, tawdriest Dictionary entry overview: What does tawdry mean?
• TAWDRY (adjective)
The adjective TAWDRY has 2 senses:
1. tastelessly showy
2. made of inferior workmanship and materials
Familiarity information: TAWDRY used as an adjective is rare.
Dictionary entry details
| Declension: comparative and superlative |
Superlative: tawdriest
Sense 1
Meaning:
Tastelessly showy
Synonyms:
brassy; cheap; flash; flashy; garish; gaudy; gimcrack; loud; meretricious; tacky; tatty; tawdry; trashy
Context example:
tawdry ornaments
Similar:
tasteless (lacking aesthetic or social taste)
Derivation:
tawdriness (tasteless showiness)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Made of inferior workmanship and materials
Synonyms:
Context example:
cheapjack moviemaking...that feeds on the low taste of the mob
Similar:
inferior (of low or inferior quality)
Derivation:
tawdriness (tasteless showiness)
Context examples
It seemed so tawdry what he had offered her—mere money—compared with what she offered him.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Life had become cheap and tawdry, a beastly and inarticulate thing, a soulless stirring of the ooze and slime.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
He had time to note the light, fluffy something that hid her queenly head, the tasteful lines of her wrapped figure, the gracefulness of her carriage and of the hand that caught up her skirts; and then she was gone and he was left staring at the two girls of the cannery, at their tawdry attempts at prettiness of dress, their tragic efforts to be clean and trim, the cheap cloth, the cheap ribbons, and the cheap rings on the fingers.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
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