TV dinner

American  

noun

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

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Etymology

Origin of TV dinner

First recorded in 1950–55

Example Sentences

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

Will John finally speak up, or will this be yet another yule he spends alone with a parakeet, a fish and a TV dinner?

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 25, 2020

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

My TV dinner tasted like a commercial break.

From "Sunny" by Jason Reynolds