What's the difference between ostentatious and tawdry?

Ostentatious


Definition:

  • (a.) Fond of, or evincing, ostentation; unduly conspicuous; pretentious; boastful.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Daryush 'Roosh V' Valizadeh cancels neo-masculinist meetings over safety Read more Roosh and company encountered such uniform hostility because their views are ostentatiously vile.
  • (2) He was ostentatious in assembling a multi-faith support cast and pointed in his insistence on unity.
  • (3) The popular image of yakuza families as ostentatiously wealthy and loyal to the core bears little resemblance to Tendo's early experiences of poverty and betrayal.
  • (4) But BrewDog’s astonishing growth may raise the uncomfortable possibility that in an age of media-savvy and brand-sceptical digital natives, ostentatious displays of “authenticity” – known to some as acting like pretentious hipster douchebags – may have become a necessary condition for success.
  • (5) Eighteen months ago the group sprayed designs inspired by the British graffiti artist Banksy on walls of ostentatious new houses believed to have been built with the profits of the £3bn a year Afghan drug trade.
  • (6) Trump approves of working with autocrats, at least, and would probably make fast friends with the galaxy’s less reputable leaders – especially those who share his interests, eg crimelord Jabba the Hutt, who lives in an ostentatious palace , loves parties , demeans women and feeds a literal Rancor .
  • (7) Farage told LBC’s Nick Ferrari: “I think that given that some people feel very embarrassed by [breastfeeding], it isn’t too difficult to breastfeed a baby in a way that’s not openly ostentatious.” If the hotel asked a nursing mother to cover up, he said: “Frankly, that’s up to Claridge’s.
  • (8) The paper alleges: "It was well-known that corruption among politicians in the Turks and Caicos Islands was endemic and it was inherently unlikely that Mr Misick could have achieved such apparent wealth and pursued such an ostentatious lifestyle while being premier, without having being corrupt.
  • (9) The current South African president, Jacob Zuma , has also made ostentatious shows of reverence to "Madiba".
  • (10) The aide said Lebedev was unhappy about the ostentatious nature of the raid, and the use of masked men carrying serious guns.
  • (11) Forster sometimes thought that King's was a bit too ostentatious, and that its buildings had a tendency to say "look at me."
  • (12) It is comfortable without being ostentatious and with no concession to "designer living".
  • (13) The exhibition was put under a boycott by some German industrialists and the German pharmacists from Bohemia ostentatiously rejected any participation.
  • (14) At first glance, there is nothing overtly ostentatious about this quiet road, where the average property was last year valued at around £41m, more than 165 times the value of the average UK home (£248,863).
  • (15) An ostentatious leather-bound album with Kniga Dlya Dam embossed in gold on the cover opens to reveal a Chinese silk drawing of an entwined couple.
  • (16) "Ostentatiously earnest but low on talent, horrible to watch, and pretty horrible to listen to as well."
  • (17) Tom Neenan and Nish Kumar's investigation into the fate of the written word may appear highbrow on the surface, what with its ostentatious musings on literature and aesthetics, but that's just a cover for an hour of engaging silliness, packed with inventive devices and satisfyingly funny gags.
  • (18) Overbearing, ostentatious, and incongruous, don't you think?"
  • (19) The club's website says it caters to the "nouveau riche" and invites guests to "slip on your diamante dancing shoes or designer suit and dance the night away at the most ostentatious venue in Joburg".
  • (20) Mikheil Saakashvili: 'Ukraine's government has no vision for reform' Read more Konstantin Kosachyov, head of the foreign affairs committee in the upper house of parliament, called Rasmussen’s appointment a “ostentatious show” with no “military or even practical purpose”.

Tawdry


Definition:

  • (superl.) Bought at the festival of St. Audrey.
  • (superl.) Very fine and showy in colors, without taste or elegance; having an excess of showy ornaments without grace; cheap and gaudy; as, a tawdry dress; tawdry feathers; tawdry colors.
  • (n.) A necklace of a rural fashion, bought at St. Audrey's fair; hence, a necklace in general.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The citizenship debate is tawdry, conflated and ultimately pointless | Richard Ackland Read more On Wednesday, the prime minister criticised lawyers for backing terrorists.
  • (2) Writing in the Observer under the headline "Michael Gove, using history for politicking is tawdry" , Hunt seethes, "the government is using what should be a moment for national reflection and respectful debate to rewrite the historical record and sow political division."
  • (3) The BBC presenter confided to the Radio Times that he shares widespread public disdain for the "tawdry pretences" of modern politicians and the "green-bench pantomime" of Westminster politics.
  • (4) They were already emboldened by the tawdry campaign of fear used to stop Scottish independence.
  • (5) Rudd's "zero tolerance" for corruption, and his "disgust" for the tawdry shenanigans in NSW, were in the news cycle before the Icac recommendations – a deliberate bit of media management.
  • (6) Garvey finished with this somewhat tangential attack: "There are a lot of people who feel that Britain is a bit tawdry," going on to list its seamier side – reality telly, 24-hour drinking, a lapdancing club on every street corner, a Radio 5 Live presenter doing Woman's Hour (that last is my input) … "There are many people who have an asbo and the family are rather chuffed," she said.
  • (7) I wear a hijab and that’s going to be a problem, but once one person is able to do that, it then allows other people to dream too.” Though the never-ending campaign cycle and tawdry political fighting can breed apathy and disinterest in the American political process, Omar’s family fought for political representation, engendering in Omar a deep enthusiasm and optimism about the importance of the vote.
  • (8) This tawdry friendship of convenience, these pageants, lies and unethical compromises, may benefit Cameron and Xi, but they are an insult to the citizens of Britain, who cherish their hard-fought freedoms, and to those in China , who are still struggling courageously to achieve them.
  • (9) The prime minister who once promised a new politics is revealed as a shameless practitioner of the tawdry old art of government by patronage.
  • (10) Yesterday Bin Hammam claimed the allegations were a "tawdry manoeuvre" to discredit him ahead of the election, claiming for the first time the money was for administrative costs and travel expenses.
  • (11) It has become a symbol of intolerance, it faces a court battle with the federal government, and it has exemplified that most un-southern quality: tawdriness.
  • (12) Warrant suggests federal police are investigating Mal Brough over diary leak Read more Dreyfus, the shadow attorney general, told parliament the Australian people deserved answers about Brough’s “grubby” role in “one of the most tawdry episodes” of the Tony Abbott era.
  • (13) That is the tawdry secret that dare not speak its name."
  • (14) Since his conviction, politicians from all sides of the chamber have been, as the BBC always says, "united in their condemnation" of Walker and his tawdry struggle to hang on to his job and his £58,000 salary when he ought instead to have resigned immediately.
  • (15) "Press regulation is too important an issue to be answered by some tawdry deal cooked up at two in the morning in Ed Miliband's office," he told BBC Radio 4's PM programme on Tuesday.
  • (16) Bin Hammam, who previously labelled the investigation into the allegations a "tawdry manoeuvre" aimed at destabilising his election campaign, earlier muttered still more darkly.
  • (17) This apparently tawdry and peripheral form contains a hallucinatory history of the modern self.
  • (18) "It's getting a bit desperate isn't it when a club make an announcement that they've not had any interest in their players, trying to give the impression that they disapprove of the entire tawdry business.
  • (19) This is slightly disingenuous – in January, he and Trudie, his film-producer wife of 18 years and mother to four of his six children, gave a joint interview to Harper's Bazaar in which he claimed: "I don't think pedestrian sex is very interesting… we like tawdry."
  • (20) And the FA itself might finally recognise its responsibility to football’s fans and lead a boycott of Fifa , withdrawing in all but name from the committees and procedures of the tawdry, discredited outfit that represents the world’s favourite game.