1. showy but cheap and of poor quality: "tawdry jewellery"
▪ sordid or unpleasant:"the tawdry business of politics"
noun
1. cheap and gaudy finery.archaic
Word Originearly 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.
