tawdry
adjective
[ ˈtɔːdri ]
• showy but cheap and of poor quality.
• "tawdry jewellery"
Similar:
gaudy,
flashy,
showy,
garish,
loud,
tasteless,
vulgar,
brash,
crass,
trashy,
junky,
cheap,
cheap and nasty,
cheapjack,
paltry,
worthless,
shoddy,
shabby,
meretricious,
plastic,
tinselly,
gimcrack,
Brummagem,
flash,
tatty,
tacky,
kitsch,
rubbishy,
twopenny-halfpenny,
tawdry
noun
• cheap and gaudy finery.
Origin:
early 17th century: short for tawdry lace, a fine silk lace or ribbon worn as a necklace in the 16th–17th centuries, contraction of St Audrey's lace : Audrey was a later form of Etheldrida (died 679), patron saint of Ely where tawdry laces, along with cheap imitations and other cheap finery, were traditionally sold at a fair.
