English

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Etymology

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Possible calque of Russian зомбоящик (zombojaščik).

Noun

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zombie box (plural zombie boxes)

  1. (slang, derogatory, uncommon) A television.
    • 2002, Galloway Kyle, Harold Monro, Stephen Phillips (editors), Poetry Review, Volume 92, page 60:
      taking a form more frequently thought of as anathematical to poetry (Iain Chrichton Smith, for example, lambasted the TV as a deadening zombie box in "At the TV") and seeing in it parallels and possibilities.
    • 2014, Chris Marie Green, Another One Bites the Dust, page 202:
      Nichelle was wary as she set purse and a couple of small shopping bags on the table. "Great. Thanks?" He didn't say anything else, just kept watching the zombie box.
    • 2020, Keith A. Livers, Conspiracy Culture, Post-Soviet Paranoia and the Russian Imagination, page 23:
      More contemporary Russian fears are centered on the ability of mass media to essentially colonize human consciousness, turning the individual into a function of the "zombie-box" (or TV), as is the case in Viktor Pelevin's Generation П.