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

My parents called television the “idiot box,” a term coined in the mid-1950s.

From The Wall Street Journal

The “idiot box” was considered a wasteland if not a scourge.

From New York Times

For those of us who’ve watched TV grow from the unfairly derided “idiot box” to become the preeminent art form of the 21st century, such a development seems at once completely absurd and tragically inevitable.

From Los Angeles Times

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

And there I was at home on our hand-me-down couch with a tiny Sally nestled in the crook of one arm while I stared at the palm-sized idiot box cradled in my other hand.

From Washington Post