How to Use tawdry in a Sentence

tawdry

adjective
  • The scandal was a tawdry affair.
  • For once in your tawdry, obese life, do the right thing.
    — Howie Carr, Boston Herald, 5 Sep. 2025
  • There are way more tawdry details that none of us should have to know.
    — Author: Shannyn Moore | Opinion, Anchorage Daily News, 24 Mar. 2018
  • Even eggs worth three or four thousand dollars looked tawdry and cheap.
    — Olivia Martin, Town & Country, 12 Oct. 2018
  • And what about the people who see betting on sports as immoral or tawdry?
    — CBS News, 21 Mar. 2021
  • In the end, the case isn’t about the tawdry details of the hush money payments.
    — Alanna Durkin Richer, Fortune, 5 Apr. 2023
  • There’s no shame in it—only the risk of having a tawdry rendezvous with better health.
    — Sheryl Huggins Salomon, The Root, 5 Aug. 2017
  • One of her most tawdry jokes referenced her post-college career.
    — Nick Vadala, Philly.com, 30 Apr. 2018
  • The hegemon exhibits power by rising above such tawdry tricks.
    — Walter Russell Mead, WSJ, 24 June 2019
  • As for Carroll’s tawdry Trump tale, there is slightly more to it, on both sides.
    — Andrew C. McCarthy, National Review, 12 Sep. 2020
  • As a result, these works of criticism are often tawdry or just plain boring.
    — SPIN, 8 Feb. 2022
  • But our concern is not with tawdry tales of Ferraris, Rolexes and ball gowns.
    — Nick Corasaniti, New York Times, 31 Jan. 2018
  • The new ones look tawdry and a little swagless, like replica jerseys.
    — Amanda Mull, The Atlantic, 20 Feb. 2024
  • There's the tawdry true crime series that has no choice but to accept the things that Cameron claims at face value.
    — Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 16 Apr. 2018
  • But our concern is not with tawdry tales of Ferraris, Rolexes, and ball gowns.
    — Matt Ford, The Atlantic, 19 Oct. 2017
  • There are plenty of elements for a robustly tawdry thriller here.
    — Kyle Smith, National Review, 17 Mar. 2022
  • If that rumor proves true, the rally would be a tawdry end to Trump’s presidency.
    — Paul Bedard, Washington Examiner, 12 Dec. 2020
  • The Crown handles what could have been—and probably still is—a tawdry moment with humor and care.
    — Eliana Dockterman, Time, 9 Nov. 2022
  • My dotty building was home not only to the tawdry and the drunken, but also the homicidal.
    — Michael Milton, New York Times, 12 Jan. 2018
  • What boomers such as Sharpton have done is to discredit the sort of tawdry horse-trading that made that system work.
    — Park MacDougald, Washington Examiner, 14 Jan. 2021
  • There are no packs of cruise passengers, no tawdry tchotchke shops, and no overdeveloped swathes crammed with hotels and restaurants.
    — Alisha Prakash, Travel + Leisure, 2 July 2023
  • No matter what revelations come to mind, some of these comments were so tawdry and almost childish.
    — Fox News, 30 June 2018
  • And there’s something offensively tawdry that all of this is in mere service of extracting rent.
    — James Folta, Literary Hub, 12 Mar. 2026
  • These assets make a tough watch also a tender one, dignifying a tawdry story to the status of a tragedy.
    — Jessica Kiang, Variety, 7 July 2022
  • But the tawdry tale suggests that there was plenty of blame to go around, including the Sheriffs Dept.
    — Brian Lowry, CNN, 26 Feb. 2020
  • That show is a wretched, tawdry mess that never should have made it onto HBO’s schedule.
    — Scott D. Pierce, The Salt Lake Tribune, 16 July 2023
  • Mock answers all of my questions with the same level of nonchalance, despite the slightly tawdry conceit of our chat.
    — Emily Tannenbaum, Glamour, 15 July 2021
  • The family, rather than any one individual, is the best prism through which to look at the whole tawdry enterprise.
    — Rich Lowry, National Review, 1 Oct. 2023
  • So graceful and powerful, without feeling tawdry.
    — Mike Fleming Jr, Deadline, 22 June 2026
  • Those are the experiences, people say, that built the man's character, not the tawdry details of one moment in time.
    — Jade Jackson, IndyStar, 15 Oct. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tawdry.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: