imperial vs tawdry

imperial

adj
  • Of special, superior, or unusual size or excellence. 

  • Related to an empire, emperor, or empress. 

  • Very grand or fine. 

  • Relating to the British imperial system of measurement. 

noun
  • Any of several combinations of cards which score in this game. 

  • A crown imperial. 

  • A bottle of wine (usually Bordeaux) containing 6 liters of fluid, eight times the volume of a standard bottle. 

  • An outside seat on a diligence or carriage. 

  • A writing paper size measuring 30 × 22 inches, or printing paper measuring 32 × 22 inches. 

  • A kind of dome, as in Moorish buildings. 

  • A variety of green tea. 

  • A card game differing from piquet in some minor details, and in having a trump. 

  • A tuft of hair on the lower lip (so called from its use by Napoleon III). 

tawdry

adj
  • Unseemly, base, shameful. 

  • Cheap and gaudy; showy. 

How often have the words imperial and tawdry occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )