tawdriness
- noun
- /ˈtɔːdrɪnəs/
- The tawdriness of the cheap jewelry was evident, as it quickly tarnished after just a few days.
Examples
-
These are all the defining attributes of minstrelsy, and fittingly, the show is also peppered with wonderful moments of deliberate farce and tawdriness.
Blog text (9) -
Unfortunately, the embarrassment so many experienced at the sudden revelation of the tawdriness of our popular culture has rapidly subsided.
Academic text (2002) -
So, for all its tawdriness, our adultery obsession has its purpose.
Academic text (2011) -
He'd been flattered, he could see now, and the tawdriness
Fiction book (2002) -
Fields keeps interrupting the story with reminders of the phoniness and tawdriness of the cinema, but at the same time he is still able to work the old magic and keep us laughing at the absurd lameness of his own ideas for telling a story.
Academic text (2002) -
He signaled with his hands to summon up the bogus gentility of the brothel, the disgusting tawdriness of the shame house that his mother had preferred to him.
Fiction book (1990) -
It is lust for power and greed for land, veneered with the tawdriness of false humanity," wrote one, by then a U.S. senator as well as a survivor of the Battles of Shiloh and Spotsylvania.
Blog text (4) -
The tawdriness of the carnival decorations made the festival less enjoyable than expected.
-
Many people criticized the tawdriness of the reality show for prioritizing shock value over substance.
Synonyms
Flashy style that looks nice but is not deep
A quality that makes something look showy and not stylish
A bright, showy style that attracts attention and looks cheap
Too much bright decoration on clothes or signs that looks bad
Things that are very bright or flashy and look unpleasant
A quality of looking cheap and in bad taste
A style that is very bright or richly decorated to attract attention
A cheap, flashy way of copying better things
Something that looks bright and attractive but has no real value
A quality of being showy and loud in style that hides simple beauty
Antonyms
How Tasteful
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Tawdriness comes from the name Saint Audrey and the old phrase St Audrey's, because at a fair for the saint people sold pretty lace necklaces and cheap jewellery that looked fine but were low quality. Over time St Audrey's changed into tawdry, so tawdriness now means 'cheap and showy'.