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

See Examples For:

idiot box

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 ● Sep. 11, 2022

The idiot box gained heft and intellectual credibility to the point where you seem dumb if you are not watching it.”

From Salon ● Oct. 12, 2015

Network television needs pilot season because without it the necessary content that fuels the idiot box we all love would never get made.

From Forbes ● Aug. 10, 2015

First, though the moon landing showed just how unifying television can be, Peggy paints the good ol’ idiot box as something of a threat to family bonding at the dinner table.

From Time ● May 26, 2014

The sign of hope for the medium is that only a decade ago, a medium like television was considered an idiot box and a vast wasteland.

From Slate ● Dec. 17, 2009