idiot box

English

Etymology

From idiot +‎ box, an allusion to the supposed mind-reducing nature of television programming or its lack of educational value.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU):

  (file)

Noun

idiot box (plural idiot boxes)

1. (idiomatic, chiefly US and Canada) Television.
   • 2003 March 31, Bill Litchfield, “Basketball Fans”, in rec.gardens‎^[1] (Usenet):

     During the long, dreary, wet winter I amused myself by watching college and Pro basketball on the idiot box.

Usage notes

The same term could also have an application towards computer screens and tablets.

Synonyms

• (television): boob tube (boob = idiot)

Translations

television (pejorative)

• Finnish: telkkari (fi), töllö (fi)
• Greek: χαζοκούτι (el) n (chazokoúti)
• Icelandic: imbakassi m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: дебили́зор (ru) m (debilízor) (contamination of "деби́л"(retard) and "телеви́зор" (TV set)), зомбоя́щик (ru) m (zombojáščik) (zombiebox), дуроско́п m (duroskóp), зомбови́зор m (zombovízor)
• Spanish: caja boba f, caja idiota f
• Swedish: dumburk (sv) c