See idiot box on Wiktionary
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"2": "idiot",
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"expansion": "idiot + box",
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],
"etymology_text": "From idiot + box, an allusion to the supposed mind-reducing nature of television programming or its lack of educational value.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "idiot boxes",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
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"args": {},
"expansion": "idiot box (plural idiot boxes)",
"name": "en-noun"
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],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
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{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "American English",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
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{
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{
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{
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{
"kind": "other",
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],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2003 March 31, Bill Litchfield, “Basketball Fans”, in rec.gardens (Usenet):",
"text": "During the long, dreary, wet winter I amused myself by watching college and Pro basketball on the idiot box.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Television."
],
"id": "en-idiot_box-en-noun-M7ekgZDL",
"links": [
[
"Television",
"television"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic, chiefly US and Canada) Television."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "boob tube"
},
{
"word": "zombie box"
}
],
"tags": [
"Canada",
"US",
"idiomatic"
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "television (pejorative)",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "treurbuis"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "television (pejorative)",
"word": "telkkari"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "television (pejorative)",
"word": "töllö"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "television (pejorative)",
"tags": [
"colloquial",
"feminine"
],
"word": "Glotze"
},
{
"code": "el",
"lang": "Greek",
"roman": "chazokoúti",
"sense": "television (pejorative)",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "χαζοκούτι"
},
{
"code": "is",
"lang": "Icelandic",
"sense": "television (pejorative)",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "imbakassi"
},
{
"alt": "contamination of \"деби́л\"(retard) and \"телеви́зор\" (TV set)",
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "debilízor",
"sense": "television (pejorative)",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "дебили́зор"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "zombojáščik",
"sense": "television (pejorative)",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "зомбоя́щик"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "duroskóp",
"sense": "television (pejorative)",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "дуроско́п"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "zombovízor",
"sense": "television (pejorative)",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "зомбови́зор"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "television (pejorative)",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "caja boba"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "television (pejorative)",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "caja idiota"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "television (pejorative)",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "caja tonta"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "television (pejorative)",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "dumburk"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "en-au-idiot box.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/8d/En-au-idiot_box.ogg/En-au-idiot_box.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/En-au-idiot_box.ogg"
}
],
"word": "idiot box"
}
{
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"2": "idiot",
"3": "box"
},
"expansion": "idiot + box",
"name": "compound"
}
],
"etymology_text": "From idiot + box, an allusion to the supposed mind-reducing nature of television programming or its lack of educational value.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "idiot boxes",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "idiot box (plural idiot boxes)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
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"Canadian English",
"English compound terms",
"English countable nouns",
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"English nouns",
"English terms with quotations",
"Entries with translation boxes",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"Terms with Dutch translations",
"Terms with Finnish translations",
"Terms with German translations",
"Terms with Greek translations",
"Terms with Icelandic translations",
"Terms with Russian translations",
"Terms with Spanish translations",
"Terms with Swedish translations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2003 March 31, Bill Litchfield, “Basketball Fans”, in rec.gardens (Usenet):",
"text": "During the long, dreary, wet winter I amused myself by watching college and Pro basketball on the idiot box.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Television."
],
"links": [
[
"Television",
"television"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic, chiefly US and Canada) Television."
],
"tags": [
"Canada",
"US",
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
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"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/8/8d/En-au-idiot_box.ogg/En-au-idiot_box.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/En-au-idiot_box.ogg"
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],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "boob tube"
},
{
"word": "zombie box"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "television (pejorative)",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "treurbuis"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "television (pejorative)",
"word": "telkkari"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "television (pejorative)",
"word": "töllö"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "television (pejorative)",
"tags": [
"colloquial",
"feminine"
],
"word": "Glotze"
},
{
"code": "el",
"lang": "Greek",
"roman": "chazokoúti",
"sense": "television (pejorative)",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "χαζοκούτι"
},
{
"code": "is",
"lang": "Icelandic",
"sense": "television (pejorative)",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "imbakassi"
},
{
"alt": "contamination of \"деби́л\"(retard) and \"телеви́зор\" (TV set)",
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "debilízor",
"sense": "television (pejorative)",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "дебили́зор"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "zombojáščik",
"sense": "television (pejorative)",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "зомбоя́щик"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "duroskóp",
"sense": "television (pejorative)",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "дуроско́п"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "zombovízor",
"sense": "television (pejorative)",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "зомбови́зор"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "television (pejorative)",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "caja boba"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "television (pejorative)",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "caja idiota"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "television (pejorative)",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "caja tonta"
},
{
"code": "sv",
"lang": "Swedish",
"sense": "television (pejorative)",
"tags": [
"common-gender"
],
"word": "dumburk"
}
],
"word": "idiot box"
}
Download raw JSONL data for idiot box meaning in All languages combined (3.6kB)
{
"called_from": "form_descriptions/2013",
"msg": "more than one value in \"roman\": zombiebox vs. zombojáščik",
"path": [
"idiot box"
],
"section": "English",
"subsection": "noun",
"title": "idiot box",
"trace": ""
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (b941637 and 4230888). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.