Taw·dry a. [Compar. Tawdrier superl. Tawdriest.]
  1. Bought at the festival of St. Audrey. [Obs.]
  And gird in your waist,
  For more fineness, with a tawdry lace.   --Spenser.
  2. 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
       adj 1: 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]
       2: cheap and shoddy; "cheapjack moviemaking...that feeds on the
          low taste of the mob"- Judith Crist [syn: cheapjack, shoddy]
       [also: tawdriest, tawdrier]