zombie box

English

Etymology

Possible calque of Russian зомбоящик (zombojaščik).

Noun

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.