VCR

American  

1. videocassette recorder: an electronic apparatus capable of recording television programs or other signals onto videocassettes and playing them back through a television receiver.

---

VCR British  

abbreviation

1. video cassette recorder

2. visual control room (at an airfield)

---

Example Sentences

Here, Tuason cleverly lifts a conceit from “The Ring,” where a cursed videotape gave the viewer seven days to live after popping it into the VCR.

From Salon • Mar. 15, 2026

The VCR transformed Americans from passive viewers into active curators of their entertainment, laying the groundwork for everything from mixtapes to Netflix.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 14, 2026

He started in 1988, back when “machine learning” meant teaching your VCR to record “Cheers.”

From MarketWatch • Nov. 15, 2025

Of course, we consume these things differently since streaming took over the world, and arguably since man first learned to program a VCR, with network shows subsumed into the ocean of time-shifted picking and choosing.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 23, 2025

I pushed the first tape into the VCR and sat beside him, searching his warped face, listening to his soft whimpers, while on the screen Alice Kramden outfoxed her husband again and again.

From "Educated" by Tara Westover