0 looking bright and attractive but in fact cheap and of low quality:
1 showing or having low moral standards:
She humiliated her husband with her tawdry affair.
tawdry revelations about his visits to prostitutes
2 showy, cheap, and of poor quality:
tawdry jewelry/furnishings
The tawdry glitter of the fairground is contrasted with the lovers in the shadows.
The stark lighting bathes the audience in a harsh, eye-punishing glare that makes the theater's seats and carpeting look strangely tawdry.
The allegations about her son are the latest chapter in a tawdry tale of lust and murder.
I can't understand why such a good actor got involved in such tawdry, tacky television.
Spectacle, by contrast, relies on novelty; when it ceases to be cutting-edge, its effects quickly begin to appear faded and tawdry.
Is maternal feminism merely a tawdry and retrograde diversion?
