adj. (old colloquial: now recognised in its debased sense).—1. Orig. fine, elegant, trim; whence (2) cheaply showy, ignorantly fine; see quots. 1696 and 1822. Also derivatives such as TAWDERED, TAWDRILY, TAWDRINESS, etc. TAWDRY-LACE (or TAWDRY) = a rustic necklace or girdle; TAWDRUMS = fal-lals. Hence, by implication = bawdy (see quot. 1759–62): see TOLTAWDRY.
1530. PALSGRAVE, Langue Francoyse. SEYNT AUDRIES LACE [‘whence (T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, i. 463) came TAWDRY in later times’].
1548. PATTEN [ARBER, Garner, iii. 71] [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, i. 519. We read of TAUTHRIE LACES in a list of superstitious trumpery; these were sold at St Audrey’s fair at Ely].
1579. SPENSER, The Shepheardes Calender, April, 133.
| And gird in your waste, | |
| For more finesse, with a TAWDRIE lace. |
1604. SHAKESPEARE, Winter’s Tale, iv. 3. Come, you promised me a TAWDRY LACE, and a pair of sweet gloves.
1605. MARSTON, The Dutch Courtezan, v. No matter for lace and TAWDRUMS.
1610. FLETCHER, Faithful Shepherd, iv. 1. The primrose chaplet, TAWDRY LACE, and ring.
1612. DRAYTON, Poly-Olbion, ii. 686.
| Of which the Naiads and the blue Nereids make | |
| Them TAUDRIES for their necks. | |
| Ibid., iv. 727. | |
| They curl their ivory fronts; and not the smallest beck | |
| But with white pebbles makes her TAWDRIES for her neck. |
1670. The Moral State of England, 161. A kind of TAWDRINESS in their habits.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. TAUDRY, garish, gawdy, with Lace or mismatched and flaring Colours: A Term borrow’d from those times when they Trickt and Bedeckt the Shrines and Altars of the Saints, as being at vye with each other upon that occasion. The Votaries of St Audrey (an Isle of Ely Saint) exceeding all the rest in the Dress and Equipage of her Altar, it grew into a Nay-word, upon anything very gawdy, that it was all Taudry, as much as to say all ST AUDREY.
1716. MONTAGUE, Letters, 22 Aug. Dirty people of quality TAWDERED OUT.
1736. PULTENEY, To Swift, 21 Dec. A rabble of people, seeing her very oddly and TAWDRILY dressed, took her for a foreigner.
1759–67. STERNE, Tristram Shandy, v. 59. There is nothing in this world I abominate worse than to be interrupted in a story, and I was that moment telling Eugenius a most TAWDRY one.
1762. CHURCHILL, The Prophecy of Famine, 99.
| With all that artificial TAWDRY glare | |
| Which virtue scorns, and none but strumpets wear! |
1822. NARES, Glossary, s.v. TAWDRY. A vulgar corruption of saint Audrey, or Auldrey, meaning saint Ethelreda, [implying] that things so called had been bought at the fair of saint Audrey, where gay toys of all sorts were sold. This fair was held in the Isle of Ely … on the … 17th of October…. An old historian makes saint Audrey die of a swelling in her throat, which she considered as a particular judgment, for having been in her youth much addicted to wearing fine necklaces. NICH. HARPSFIELD (1622), Hist. Eccl. Anglicana.
