Tawdry

sb. and a. Also 6 tauthrie, tawdrie (see next); 7 taudrey, tawdery, 7–8 taudry. [As sb. short for TAWDRY LACE, q.v.; hence referring to the showy but cheap quality of these in the 17th century.]

  A.  sb. † 1. Short for TAWDRY LACE. Obs.

1612.  Drayton, Poly-olb., ii. 46. Of which the Naïdes, and the blew Nereïdes make Them Taudries for their necks. Ibid., iv. 50. Not the smallest Beck But with white Pebles makes her Tandries for her neck.

  2.  Cheap and pretentious finery.

a. 1680.  Butler, Rem. (1759), I. 223. Applaud th’ outsides of Words, but never mind, with what fantastic tawdery th’are lin’d.

1747.  Richardson, Clarissa (1811), II. xx. 139. Only for the sake of having a little more tawdry upon his housings.

1831.  Examiner, 390/1. A dress circle!… look at the tawdry and the ennui!

1867.  Smiles, Huguenots Eng. (1880), 349. A poor bedizened creature, clad in tawdry.

  B.  adj. 1. Of the nature of cheap finery; showy or gaudy without real value.

1676.  Etheredge, Man of Mode, II. ii. A Woman that Can doat on a senseless Caper, a Tawdry French Riband, and a Formal Cravat.

1686.  Burnet, Lett. (1708), 288. A Tawdry Imbroidery of Gold and Silver.

1711.  Steele, Spect., No. 80, ¶ 3. A gay West Indian, who appeared in all the Colours which can affect an Eye that could not distinguish between being fine and taudry.

1805.  Repton, Landscape Gard., 160. The lavish profusion of tawdry embellishment.

1859.  Jephson, Brittany, ii. 14. The high altar is wretchedly tawdry.

  † b.  Untidy; slovenly; ungraceful. Obs. rare.

1671.  Grew, Anat. Plants, v. § 3. A Flower without its Empalement, would hang as uncouth and taudry, as a Lady without her Bodies.

c. 1820.  Joanna Baillie, Summer’s Day, 83. His awkward … lad, Who trails his tawdry armful [of hay] o’er the field.

  2.  transf. Of persons or their condition: Tawdrily dressed or decked out; cheaply adorned.

1676.  Wycherley, Pl. Dealer, V. i. Taudry affected Rogues, well drest.

1706.  Phillips (ed. 6), Taudry or Tawdry,… tricked up with such tinsel Stuff, or Lace as is usually sold at Audery-Fair in Cambridge-shire.

1851.  Helps, Comp. Solit., vii. (1874), 133. Like one of those tawdry girls who pass by me.

1862.  Miss Braddon, Lady Audley, xxvii. An aspect of genteel desolation and tawdry misery not easily to be parallelled in wretchedness.

  3.  fig. esp. of style, diction, etc.; hence of a speaker or writer: Trumpery.

1696.  R. L’Estrange, Seneca’s Mor. (ed. 6), Afterth. 12. Without forcing the Design of the Author, or intermixing any Tawdry Flowrishes by the By.

a. 1718.  Penn, Maxims, § 126. Wks. 1726 I. 850. ’Tis but Taudry Talk, and next to very Trash.

1764.  Goldsm., Traveller, Ded. Him they dignify with the name of poet: his tawdry lampoons are called satires.

1808.  Scott, Lett. to Lady L. Stuart, 19 Jan., in Lockhart. His language is too flowery and even tawdry.

1834.  Sir Egerton Brydges, Autobiog., II. 65. It is of no use to put tawdry words together, and create monsters by extravagant combinations.

1858.  N. J. Gannon, Court of Apollo, in O’Donoghue of the Lakes, etc., 88.