TAWDRY  , an

adjective used to characterize cheap finery, and especially things which imitate in a cheap way that which is rich or costly, or adornments of which the freshness and elegance have worn off . The word is first used in combination in the phrase " tawdry lace," a shortened form or corruption of St Audrey's or St Awdrey's lace . St Audrey was St Etheldreda, who founded Ely cathedral, and it is generally accepted that tawdry-laces or tawdries were necklaces bought at St Audrey's Fair on the 17th of October . Nares (Glossary to the Works of English Authors, 1859) gives as an alternativethe story that the saint died of a swelling in the throat, which she took as a judgment for having worn fine necklaces in her youth .