WordWeight : Weighing the Words

Pronunciation : Taw"dry
Part of Speech : a.
Etymology : [Said to be corrupted from Saint Audrey, or Auldrey, meaning Saint Ethelreda, implying therefore, originally, bought at the fair of St. Audrey, where laces and gay toys of all sorts were sold. This fair was held in Isle Ely, and probably at other places,
Definition : 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.

[Compar. Tawdrier; superl. Tawdriest.]
Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913

Pronunciation : Taw"dry
Part of Speech : n.;
Definition : Defn: A necklace of a rural fashion, bought at St. Audrey's fair; hence, a necklace in general. [Obs.] Of which the Naiads and the blue Nereids make Them tawdries for their necks. Drayton.

pl. Tawdries (.
Source : Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913