tawdry ˈtȯ-drē , ˈtä- adjective
1. tastelessly showy
2. cheap and shoddy
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The word tawdry has appeared in 61 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Nov. 14 in the audiobook review “Elaine Stritch Gives New Voice to Dorothy Parker’s Tales of Social Life, and Private Pain” by Sadie Stein:
The seven stories presented here reveal Parker’s manifold strengths. We see her as a chronicler of contemporary New York, in both its manic, flapper highs and its bread-line lows. Her playwright’s ear for the nuances of dialogue is discernible in stories like “Diary of a New York Lady.” Whether set in Downtown speakeasies, tawdry hotel rooms or Fifth Avenue ballrooms, all have heart — at times almost too much. Even at its most amusing (and it can, of course, be riotously, incisively, funny), Parker’s universe is fundamentally cruel, and stories like “The Garter” and “Mr. Durant” look on compassionately as characters are rocked by a hard-boiled world …
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