RTFM

American  

Or rtfm

abbreviation

Slang.

1. read the fucking manual (a euphemistic acronym used sarcastically in response to, or in reference to, someone asking for technical help).

   He won’t RTFM and then complains that he can’t get through to tech support.

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Etymology

Origin of RTFM

First recorded in 1975–80

Example Sentences

The awards included a medicine prize for urologists in Michigan who showed that kidney stones could be passed more swiftly by riding on a rollercoaster at a Disney theme park; a nutrition prize for work that revealed the unimpressive nutritional value of a cannibalistic diet; and a literature prize for a study titled “Life is too short to RTFM” that demonstrated how people despair of instruction manuals.

From The Guardian

"RTFM" is an acronym for "read the field manual", though, according to the researchers, it has gained a new meaning by consumers who are often frustrated by the complexity of operation of their product.

From BBC

Or as we might put it, RTFM* before trying to sue Apple.

From Forbes

You should get back a message saying "rtfm.mit.edu is alive" or something like that.

From Project Gutenberg

Used to refer to the manual itself in the RTFM.

From Project Gutenberg