idiot box

noun

Examples of idiot box in a Sentence

she declared that she wouldn't have an idiot box in her home
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Column: Streamers profited when ‘the idiot box’ became art. Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times, 11 Jan. 2024 All that, somehow, without Truman himself ever switching on the idiot box. Armond White, National Review, 2 Aug. 2023 Television Column: Streamers profited when ‘the idiot box’ became art. Mary McNamara, Los Angeles Times, 7 June 2023 But the idiot box has also inspired arguably his worst projects, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and The Newsroom, sanctimonious and stupefyingly self-serious accounts of the woes of content creation. Jason Bailey, Vulture, 21 Dec. 2021 All those childhood years in front of the idiot box could now be considered research — a lifetime of training, cleverly disguised as sloth. Washington Post, 29 Dec. 2020 Sometimes, television gets insulted as a vast wasteland or idiot box. Freep.com, 8 May 2020

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1955, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of idiot box was circa 1955

Dictionary Entries Near idiot box

Cite this Entry

“Idiot box.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/idiot%20box. Accessed 2 Dec. 2024.

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