Synonyms

TV dinner

American

noun

a quick-frozen meal, typically consisting of meat, potato, and a vegetable, packaged in a tray for heating before serving.

Etymology

Origin of TV dinner

First recorded in 1950–55

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

But your homemade meals don’t have to resemble a frozen TV dinner, with its segmented tray of meat, an amorphous sauce, a scoop of peas or rice and a mysterious, saccharine lump of... jello?

From Salon • Mar. 30, 2025

The first time I recall eating this dish was in a TV dinner — those flat, foil-covered trays with little compartments to hold your meat, potatoes and vegetables.

From Washington Post • Jul. 12, 2022

A new installment of “The Food That Built America” pulls back the foil on the classic TV dinner.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 9, 2021

Each has its own rituals: weeknight dinner, weekend dinner, family dinner, gala dinner, Sunday dinner, birthday dinner, TV dinner, pre-theater dinner, progressive dinner, pancake dinner, picnic dinner, winner winner chicken dinner.

From The New Yorker • May 21, 2019

They said there could be no such thing as a truly organic Twinkie or TV dinner.

From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023