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tawdry

[taw-dree] / ˈtɔ dri /


Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

When the New Deal put a cop on the Wall Street beat, Dillon cleaned up his act and lived long enough to outlast the memory of his tawdry methods.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 21, 2025

Against this enclave’s polished stone walls and bannisters, Lee looks every ragged inch of the tawdry menace the politicians and businessmen he squares off against expect him to be.

From Salon • Sep. 23, 2025

He called that meeting "the most vomit-inducing episode in all the tawdry history of international diplomacy".

From BBC • Aug. 18, 2025

Their tawdry example plainly demands systemic responses: enforceable recusal standards for the Supreme Court, laws regulating receipt of outside income by judges, and perhaps more.

From Slate • Jul. 15, 2024

People felt tawdry in the Justice Room when the old soldier had left it, and many eyed the red whips sideways, with a secret dread.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White




Vocabulary lists containing tawdry