Tawdry vs Lairy - What's the difference?
tawdry | lairy | Related terms |
Cheap and gaudy; showy.
* 1823 , , Quentin Durward , ch. 33:
* 1917 , , Calvary Alley , ch. 20:
Unseemly, base, shameful.
* 1918 , , The Forty-Niners , ch. 1:
* 1920 , , The Great Impersonation , ch. 16:
* 2008 August 9, Clemente Lisi, "
(UK) Touchy, aggressive or confrontational, usually while drunk.
* 2001 . "rush to order". Simon Stuart, Glasgow Sunday Herald , 14 October.
*:"There's always been a weird duality at the heart of New Order: the fact that three druggy, lairy Mancs and the drummer's girlfriend can craft music of such awesome emotive power as to make grown neds weep."
* 2002 . “
*:"Unskinny was a self-published riot of large lasses getting lairy in northern towns, and did a reasonable trade via friends and comic shops."
* 2002 . "
*:"The show is lairy , loud and laddish; it does exactly what it says on the tin."
* 2005 . , Alexander Masters.
*:"I started to get a bit lairy , agitated on drink."
* 2005 . "Women do make the worst drunks. Maybe it's the sick'n'sequin mix...". , The Independent on Sunday , 20 November.
*:"Obviously, I'm not beginning to suggest women commit as much violent crime as men when plastered. But I do now concede that being aggressive, ignorant, lairy and foul-mouthed suits the ladies even less than it suits the fellas."
(Australia) Vulgar and flashy.
* 1983 , National Book Council (Australia), Australian Book Review , Issues 48-57,
* 2008 , Helen Garner, True Stories ,
* 2009 , Sally Neighbour, The Mother of Mohammed: An Australian Woman?s Extraordinary Journey Into Jihad ,
(Australia) Socially unacceptable.
Tawdry is a related term of lairy.
As adjectives the difference between tawdry and lairy
is that tawdry is cheap and gaudy; showy while lairy is (uk) touchy, aggressive or confrontational, usually while drunk or lairy can be (australia) vulgar and flashy.tawdry
English
Adjective
(er)- The rest of his dress—a dress always sufficiently tawdry —was overcharged with lace, embroidery, and ornament of every kind, and the plume of feathers which he wore was so high, as if intended to sweep the roof of the hall.
- It was all cheap and incredibly tawdry , from the festoons of paper roses on the walls to the flash of paste jewels in make-believe crowns.
- [T]he "greaser" was a dirty, idle, shiftless, treacherous, tawdry vagabond, dwelling in a disgracefully primitive house, and backward in every aspect of civilization.
- The woman's passion by his side seemed suddenly tawdry and unreal, the seeking of her lips for his something horrible.
Lusty Lies of Don Juan John," New York Post (retrieved 16 Dec 2013):
- After months of flat-out lying to the public, former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards finally copped to having a sleazy extramarital fling. . . . The tawdry affair has dogged Edwards over the past few months.
Synonyms
* See * sordidReferences
*lairy
English
Etymology 1
Adjective
(er)- Don't get lairy with me!
‘We wouldn?t dream of making you feel fat’”. Glasgow Herald , 27 July.
Live With Chris Moyles". Gareth McLean, The Guardian , September 24.
Etymology 2
Thought to be from .Australian National Dictionary Centre » Australian words » Meanings and origins of Australian words and idioms » L
Adjective
(er)page 29,
- He was lairy alright, resplendent in a purple blazer and pink trousers.
page 255,
- They had no wedding party, only an Australian couple in their sixties, the woman in a great deal of pancake and blusher and a lairy fur jacket.
page 176,
- Sungkar told Rabiah he thought of her as he rode to freedom on his motor scooter through the green wrought-iron gates, disguised in a pair of blue jeans and a lairy short-sleeved batik shirt: ‘Rabiah reckoned the safari suit was bad—if only she could see me now’.