idiot box

American  

noun

Slang.

1. a television set; television.

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idiot box British  

noun

1. slang a television set

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idiot box Idioms  

1. A television set, as in There they sit in front of the idiot box, hour after hour. This slangy and pejorative expression dates from about 1960.

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Etymology

Origin of idiot box

First recorded in 1955–60

Example Sentences

All those services — all those shows — and when we plop down in front of the idiot box it still takes us 20 minutes to decide what to watch.

From Washington Post • Sep. 11, 2022

If you don’t know the namesake of Levine’s center, Cooney was the groundbreaking producer who came up with the idea in the ’60s that preschoolers could actually learn to think from the idiot box.

From Time • Mar. 3, 2016

Network television needs pilot season because without it the necessary content that fuels the idiot box we all love would never get made.

From Forbes • Aug. 10, 2015

The easy way out is not the right way, especially when I still have my buddies over there in the sandbox—defending the rights of the heroes of the idiot box and our modern-day coliseums.

From Salon • Jun. 8, 2013

The sign of hope for the medium is that only a decade ago, a medium like television was considered an idiot box and a vast wasteland.

From Slate • Dec. 17, 2009