VCR

American  

1. videocassette recorder: an electronic apparatus capable of recording television programs or other signals onto videocassettes and playing them back through a television receiver.

---

VCR British  

abbreviation

1. video cassette recorder

2. visual control room (at an airfield)

---

Example Sentences

I was a big skateboarder in my youth, and I told him I wanted a tape in the VCR like an old skate video.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 17, 2026

Here, Tuason cleverly lifts a conceit from “The Ring,” where a cursed videotape gave the viewer seven days to live after popping it into the VCR.

From Salon • Mar. 15, 2026

The VCR was also the leading edge of a cluster of inexpensive consumer electronics in the 1980s that transformed domestic life: the Walkman, answering machines, videogames, video cameras and PCs.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 14, 2026

He started in 1988, back when “machine learning” meant teaching your VCR to record “Cheers.”

From MarketWatch • Nov. 15, 2025

The buses were air- conditioned, had televisions, a VCR, and lights that we could turn on and off at our seats!

From "The Freedom Writers Diary" by The Freedom Writers