Word.ws English Dictionary

boob tube

boob tube noun: a television.

Noun

boob tube (plural boob tubes)

  1. (dated, derogatory, informal) A television.
    • Pictured on boob-tubes innumerable, babbled on travelling transistors Australia-wide.1970, Barry Oakley, chapter XLI, in A Salute to the Great McCarthy, Penguin Books Australia, published 1971, page 187
    • “Hey, guys. We were just watching some boob tube over here. Out of earshot, if you were wondering.” “Yeah! It's a show where celebrities dive into a pool and get scores. So...” “So, that's what we are doing.”2016 June 27, Brian Boyle, “Standard Deviation” (6:41 from the start), in American Dad!, season 13, episode 22, spoken by Klaus Heisler (Dee Bradley Baker)
  2. (informal) A type of woman's upper body garment consisting of a taut band of cloth around the breasts and back.
    • A midget prostitute in heels and a boob tube was walking on the bar.2005, Paul Carter, chapter VII, in Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 92
    • At the same time, Tara puts her arms into her boob tube.2015, Oscar Phoenix, This Hostage to Fortune
    Synonyms:
    tube top

Synonyms of boob tube

Forms of boob tube

pluralboob tubes

Origin of boob tube

* (television): An allusion to the idiocy of television programming and the supposed audience for such (boobs) and that the televisions of that era used cathode ray tube (CRT) vacuum tube displays. First use appears c. 1959, in the The Herald Journal. * (clothing): Due to the clothing being a tube-like garment that covers the breasts (boobs) of a woman. First use appears c. 1977, in the Daily Mail.

Questions about boob tube

What does boob tube mean?
Boob tube means a television.
What part of speech is boob tube?
Boob tube is a noun.
What is the plural of boob tube?
The plural of boob tube is boob tubes.

Words near boob tube in the dictionary

  1. boob lights
  2. boob milk
  3. boob reduction
  4. boob reductions
  5. boob sock
  6. boob tube
  7. boob tubes
  8. boob up
  9. boob window
  10. boob windows
  11. boob-sling

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: boob tube (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-boob tube.wav.

Cite this entry: “boob tube.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/boob_tube. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.