tawdry
/ˈtɔ.dɹi/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.44 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "That fiddling, parading fellow (you know who I mean) made us wait for him two hours […] only for the sake of having a little more tawdry upon his housings […]."
- "The rest of his dress—a dress always sufficiently tawdry—was overcharged with lace, embroidery, and ornament of every kind, and the plume of feathers which he wore was so high, as if intended to sweep the roof of the hall."
- "This wasn't really a room for me; the green curtains before the windows were rather tawdry, and there was anything but an abundance of nails on the walls for hanging one's wardrobe."
- "It was all cheap and incredibly tawdry, from the festoons of paper roses on the walls to the flash of paste jewels in make-believe crowns."
- "So now you just want cheap thrills and plenty of 'em and it don't^([sic]) matter how tawdry or vacuous they are as long as it's new, as long as it's new, as long as it flashes and fucking bleeps in 40 fucking different colours."
- "[T]he "greaser" was a dirty, idle, shiftless, treacherous, tawdry vagabond, dwelling in a disgracefully primitive house, and backward in every aspect of civilization."
Etymology
Shortened from tawdry lace; originally a corruption and rebracketing of Saint Audrey lace (from Old English Æðelþrȳð). The lace necklaces sold to pilgrims to Saint Audrey fell out of fashion in the 17th century, and so tawdry was reinterpreted as meaning “cheap” or “vulgar”.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈtɔ.dɹi/
- British English: /ˈtɔːdɹi/