boob tube

noun

1

chiefly US, informal + often disparaging : television

—usually used with the

She also began walking instead of plopping down in front of the boob tube every night.

—Deborah Gregory

2

chiefly British, informal : tube top

… her stage outfit of camouflage hot pants, over-the-knee boots and a boob tube with the word "love" scrawled across it was a bit much …

—Libby Callaway

Synonyms

• box
• idiot box
• television
• telly [chiefly British]
• tube
• TV

Examples of boob tube in a Sentence

They spent the evening in front of the boob tube.

What's on the boob tube tonight?

Recent Examples on the Web

The boob tube, and the mass dumbification its name implies, is on its way back, if not already here. —Ben Travers, IndieWire, 16 Jan. 2025

It was still seen as the boob tube. —Susan Morrison, The New Yorker, 13 Jan. 2025

Yep, The Munsters and The Addams Family are returning to the boob tube at the same time courtesy of Netflix. —Clark Collis, EW.com, 18 July 2022

Spotted on the likes of Beyoncé, Kendall Jenner, and Bella Hadid, the boob tube is having a 2021 renaissance. —Eliza Huber, refinery29.com, 18 Aug. 2021

But my favorite way to spend a day off is to just veg out and watch the boob tube. —Anna Moeslein, Glamour, 23 June 2021

Later that summer, Lawrence Bommer wrote a slightly longer and more descriptive review of their act: When not spoofing channel surfing (a too frequent target), the Two White Guys' skits are decidedly better than the boob tube. —Aimee Levitt, Chicago Reader, 8 Mar. 2018

But from the boob tube to the big screen to the glossies to the Big Leagues, the fault lies not with Mother Nature or the entertainment industry’s consumers — but with the fatally self-absorbed, politically toxified stars themselves. —Michelle Malkin, National Review, 20 Sep. 2017

Word History

First Known Use

1959, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for boob tube

• boob
• cube
• lube
• rube
• hypercube
• nanotube
• phototube