- a variation of tele.
telly
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of telly
First recorded in 1935–40; tel(evision) + -y 2
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.
See Examples For:
"Without this, I'd be sat at home, I'd either be watching the telly or I'd be asleep. I'd have no social life. It gives me something to look forward to."
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
And the “Antiques Roadshow” version of the lottery—the old picture over the family telly that might be worth $200 million.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 11, 2025
Visually, it's lots of fun, with new camera angles which better reflect how football plays out on the telly.
From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2025
“It’s crazy going to the Grammys and looking at all the famous people off the telly and just feeling very odd.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2025
"What's wrong with watching the telly, may I ask?" the father said.
From "Matilda" by Roald Dahl
As a child growing up near the BBC's Alexandra Palace studios he became fascinated at an early age about what went on inside and by his teens he was mending old tellies at school.
From BBC ● May 18, 2015
There are 14 stars pairing up with professionals to dance on our tellies for the Strictly Come Dancing crown.
From Children's BBC ● Sep. 8, 2010
All over Britain, women are kneeling in front of their tellies, heads low, shoulders shaking, tears and mucus dripping from their reddened faces like rain from a suburban gutter.
From The Guardian ● May 1, 2010
Through its American cable channel, BBC America, founded two years ago and now in about 12 million homes, the Beeb is recolonizing American tellies with a slate heavy on newer dramas and "Britcoms."
From Time Magazine Archive
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
