British Slang For Television (11 Examples!)

TVs are a staple of most of our lives, so it’s not surprising that a lot of slang lingo arises to describe them.

Whether it’s scolding parents trying to get their kids to stop watching too much TV, or just the general way in which people talk about TVs, there are many different words for describing them.

This is just as true in Britain as it is anywhere else, and there are many interesting and colorful slang terms in Britain for television.

Let’s look at some of them.

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TV

Starting off with the most commonly used one which you’ll hear not only in Britain but just about everywhere in the English speaking world is “TV”.

This is used just about everywhere and barely skirts the line of being slang.

Given, however, that it is not technically a standard term in itself, it qualifies as the most common slang term used for television.

From the north of Scotland to the south of England, you’ll hear this one used everywhere and you’ll always be understood.

“Put the TV on, will you?” for example.

It is sometimes spelled out as “tee-vee”.

This term is simply a shortening of “television,” if you hadn’t guessed.

It is first recorded as being used in 1948, around 20 years after commercial televisions were first invented.

It’s a very natural term to arise since “television” can be quite long and wordy, and there are plainly two key letters.

There’s not much more to say about the origin of this one!

Telly

Next we have “telly”, undoubtedly another of the most common British slang terms used for television.

This one, also, is a lot less universal—you won’t really hear this one in the United States, though it is less commonly used in Australia.

It is a quintessentially British slang term, and as widely used and understood in Britain as “TV”.

It might be more commonly reserved to the older generations today, but young people certainly have not stopped using it entirely.

“I’m just going to watch a bit of telly before bed,” for example.

This term seems even to predate the now universal “TV” by a good few years.

It is first attested in 1942, six years before the first time we see “TV” used in writing.

Which actually came first in the vernacular is of course impossible to say, but “telly” is very similar to lots of other, older slang words formed in the same way, such as “wellington” shortened to “welly”.

Tellybox

“Tellybox” is another way to refer to a television in British slang.

It’s definitely a good deal less common than the terms we’ve looked at so far, and may more often be used in a kind of tongue-in-cheek way, as opposed to naturally.

It’s meant as a bit of a joke, since the “box” is extraneous and “telly” would do fine to describe the thing.

Again, this one is not as commonly used among the younger generations now, although it has not fallen out of use entirely.

“He just sits in front of that tellybox all day now,” for example.

It’s very hard to say when this one started being used—there are not many written examples that go back very far.

Of course, it most likely arose out of the term “telly” since televisions, at least at that time, were always box-shaped.

Nowadays, given TVs are all flat screened, the term is falling out of use and does not seem as intuitive.

The box

Similarly, another slang term for television in Britain is “the box”.

This is still quite commonly used even though it has been for quite a while—and even despite the aforementioned fact that TVs generally are not shaped like boxes anymore.

Plenty of slang endures in this way, though, even when the language doesn’t accurately describe the same thing—“dialling” a number on a phone doesn’t require a dial anymore but we continue to use the term nonetheless.

This one can be used in a more derogatory way—but more on that later.

“Let’s see if there’s anything on the box,” for example.

It’s not really clear when this one started being used, either.

Again, it naturally at first arose at a time when TVs were shaped like boxes.

At present, though, that period of history remains far longer than the present one where they are flat screened, so the language endures.

It seems to have arisen in the early 1950s, though we can’t say much more than this.

Gogglebox

Another one which has become a lot more popular again in recent years is “gogglebox”.

This one is another old term, but which has become a lot more popular in recent years thanks to a television show of the same name.

Once again, we see the use of the “box” term.

This one, despite its resurgence, still remains more commonly used by the older generations, and even then mostly as a kind of jest than in total earnest.

“You’ve been watching that gogglebox too much,” for example.

Again, we aren’t really sure when or where this one started being used.

It was plainly in popular use across Britain by the late 1960s, and so probably predates this by some years at least.

Of course the word is formed by simply conjoining “goggle” and “box”, goggle being both a verb meaning to stare and a noun for a type of glasses.

Tube

Next we have “tube”, another common one used in Britain today.

It is not only used in Britain and you may well hear this one in the United States, too, though it seems to have originated in Britain as best we can tell.

It’s not really as common in Britain today as other places, and you may be met with a bit of confusion if you use this one.

That said, most people will probably realize what you mean.

“I’m not watching the tube, you can turn it off,” for example.

Our first written attestation of this slang term comes from 1959, so again it likely came before that by a few years at least.

This was around the time when televisions were becoming a staple in people’s homes.

It refers to the cathode ray tube that used to be the way that televisions worked, which would be a physical tube inside the mechanism of the TV itself.

Idiot box

Next we have “idiot box”, which tells you everything you need to know about what people mean when they use it.

This one is still very common today, although again some people might consider it to be needlessly condescending and confrontational.

As you might expect, this one is used in Britain by people who think watching television is beneath them, or that it makes you stupid to do so.

This attitude has come and gone over the years, and some certainly still hold it today.

“Another day staring at the idiot box, is it?” for example.

Of course, again, the term is an allusion to the idea that watching television is mind numbing, provides no benefit, and lacks any educational value.

You simply watch it to turn off your mind.

This attitude was really in place by at least the 1960s, and perhaps earlier, so the term may well date back at least this far.

Unfortunately, written attestations are slim, so we don’t have much to go on.

Receiver

Next we have “receiver”, not the most common slang term for television but certainly one that is still in use.

I tried to make the point earlier that a lot of language remains despite the fact that it describes antiquated forms of things.

We don’t “dial” on a phone anymore, but that’s still the term everyone uses.

This is where the term “receiver” comes in.

Televisions used to be, and in some ways still are, “receivers” for a signal that was put out by the television studios.

TVs are entirely digital now and there are no longer any analogue signals to “receive”, and yet many people in Britain still sometimes refer to their TVs in this way. “I need to get my receiver fixed,” for example.

From the earliest time that televisions were used, they worked in this way: as receivers for a transmission emitted by a television studio.

So, this term has really more become a slang term rather than always having been one.

In any case, this term was most popularized in the 1950s, though it likely predates this by some time.

We don’t know for sure.

Set

Similarly, another way you might hear a television referred to in Britain is as a “set”.

This is certainly one that most of the younger generations do not really use anymore, but it is definitely still in use among the older populations.

It’s plainly another very old fashioned term, as in the past you would refer to your “television set”, meaning all the parts of it as a single whole.

Of course it wouldn’t really be technically wrong to call a modern television a “set”, but people simply don’t do this anymore.

“I’ve bought a new set from the shop down the road,” for example.

Again, referring to a television as a “set” is something that has been done essentially since they were invented.

The term became popular in the 40s and 50s when televisions in Britain became more common and tended to be a household staple.

The term was pretty much widely in use by the time most people had TVs, then, and has since mostly fallen out of use—though not entirely.

Roger Mellie

Finally, we have a couple of examples of Cockney rhyming slang.

“Roger Mellie” is a term commonly used in the East End of London as a slang word for television.

There are a few layers to this, so bear with me.

Firstly, if you aren’t familiar, Cockney rhyming slang is a highly regional form of British slang in which you say the thing you want to say by rhyming it with something else.

So, Roger Mellie is slang for television because it rhymes with “telly”, referring back to a slang term we mentioned earlier.

“I think I was on the Roger Mellie tonight, on the news,” for example.

Roger Mellie is a character from the popular British magazine Viz, and he made his first appearance in 1981.

He is known as “the man on the telly”, and so quickly his name was taken up as a more general piece of Cockney rhyming slang for telly.

You won’t really be understood if you use this one much outside of parts of London, but it’s funny to know nonetheless!

Custard and Jelly

And lastly, another example of Cockney rhyming slang for telly is “custard and jelly”.

This is the less commonly used slang term even within Cockney rhyming slang, so you will likely not be understood if you use this one in most parts of Britain.

“He’s got a brand new custard and jelly, it’s huge,” for example.

Custard and jelly is itself a very common and popular dessert in Britain.

“Jelly”, though, in Britain refers not to fruit preserves as it does in the U.S.—this is “jam” in Britain.

Jelly is the British name for what those in the U.S. would call “jello”.

There are many different colorful terms you can use for televisions in British slang, then.

From the simplest and most common to the more complex terms that you’ll only hear in certain areas, there are many things you can call a television in Britain.

The simplest and most common are things like “telly” or even just “TV”, if that can really be considered slang anymore.

Everyone in Britain will understand what you mean by these ones.

More in British Slang

Founder - @PollyWebster

Polly Webster is the founder of Foreign Lingo and a seasoned traveler with a decade of exploration under her belt.

Over the past 10 years, she has journeyed to numerous countries around the globe, immersing herself in diverse cultures, traditions, and languages.

Drawing from her rich experiences, Polly now writes insightful articles about travel, languages, traditions, and cultures, sharing her unique perspectives and invaluable tips with her readers.

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