Tawdry vs Tacky - What's the difference?

tawdry | tacky |

As adjectives the difference between tawdry and tacky

is that tawdry is cheap and gaudy; showy while tacky is of a substance, slightly sticky.

tawdry

English

Adjective

(er)

Cheap and gaudy; showy.

* 1823 , , Quentin Durward , ch. 33:

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.

* 1917 , , Calvary Alley , ch. 20:

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.

Unseemly, base, shameful.

* 1918 , , The Forty-Niners , ch. 1:

[T]he "greaser" was a dirty, idle, shiftless, treacherous, tawdry vagabond, dwelling in a disgracefully primitive house, and backward in every aspect of civilization.

* 1920 , , The Great Impersonation , ch. 16:

The woman's passion by his side seemed suddenly tawdry and unreal, the seeking of her lips for his something horrible.

* 2008 August 9, Clemente Lisi, " 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 * sordid

References

tacky

English

Adjective

(er)

Of a substance, slightly sticky.

This paint isn't dry yet - it's still a bit tacky.

(colloquial) Of low quality.

That market stall sells all sorts of tacky ornaments.

(colloquial) In poor taste.

That was a tacky thing to say.

gaudy, flashy, showy, garish

dowdy, shabbily dressed

shabby, dowdy (in one's appearance)