tawdriest
Flashiest and cheapest
Tawdriest is the superlative of tawdry—the most cheap and gaudy, the most showy without substance.
What's tawdry tries to look elegant or valuable but fails, revealing poor quality beneath the flash: the tawdriest costume jewelry, the tawdriest tabloid headlines.
The word carries moral judgment alongside aesthetic criticism.
Tastelessly ornate
- tackyVulgar or slightly sticky
- vulgarCrude or indecent
- flashyShowy, often tastelessly so
- ostentatiousShowily excessive
showy · glitzy · brassy · loud · kitsch · chintzy · flamboyant · lurid
Of poor craftsmanship
- inferiorOf lower rank
- flimsyWeak and easily damaged
- shabbyWorn and neglected
- cut-rateOffered below usual price
second-rate · bargain-basement · low-quality · chintzy · junky · tinny · plastic · gimcrack
Morally foul or base
- sleazyDisreputably low-quality
- seedyRundown and disreputable
- disreputableHaving poor standing
- shamefulCausing or meriting disgrace
unseemly · indecent · base · degraded · louche · squalid · scandalous · debased
Worn until transparent
dingy · shabby · dilapidated · decrepit · seedy · run-down · scruffy · moth-eaten
gaudy
Tastelessly ornate
ostentatious · showy · glitzy · brassy · loud · kitsch · chintzy · flamboyant · lurid · splashy
shoddy
Of poor craftsmanship
cut-rate · second-rate · bargain-basement · low-quality · chintzy · junky · tinny · plastic · gimcrack · trumpery
sordid
Morally foul or base
- sleazyDisreputably low-quality
- seedyRundown and disreputable
- disreputableHaving poor standing
shameful · unseemly · indecent · base · degraded · louche · squalid · scandalous · debased · ignoble
threadbare
Worn until transparent
faded · dingy · shabby · dilapidated · decrepit · seedy · run-down · scruffy · moth-eaten · tatty