channel surf

channel surf

To frequently change channels when watching television, especially for an extended period of time. Primarily heard in US, South Africa. After a long week of work, I like to just sit on the sofa and channel surf for a few hours.
See also: channel, surf
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • surf
  • surfing
  • channel surfing
  • channel-surfing
  • internet
  • surf the channels
  • a couch potato
  • couch potato
  • sofa spud
  • spud
References in periodicals archive
"It's one of those things that back in the day, us elderly people used to channel surf. Nobody does that anymore," Krasinski said, according to (http://people.com/movies/john-krasinski-jokes-that-he-romanced-emily-blunt-when-he-couldnt-get-anne-hathaway/) People .
Sure, it's nice to be able to channel surf, though it's a bit awkward with the Apple TV remote, and it's great to stumble on a movie that I loved but might not have thought about searching for on an SVOD service.
Dogs will soon be able to channel surf with the first TV remote for pets.
Shopper Behavior: Today's savvy shoppers will channel surf, wait for the next promotion, check a price online or switch to private label before spending more than they expect on a product.
Faced with a television set, viewers can use their keyboards to channel surf at their leisure between 16 channels, the contents of which are perfectly timed to the ebb and flow of the song.
Or at least come back after we've had a quick channel surf.
Viewers often channel surf to compare coverage on regional and global developments.
It's great for someone who knows the channels by heart, but for most of us who channel surf, the button layout is annoying.
With Groups, users can 'Channel Surf' the web by switching the view of the scrolling sidebar between the conversations and information they are most interested in at any moment.
After renting a room at the Value Lodge, McCombs allowed the children to channel surf while she bathed.
This old-fashioned, home-made staging either enthralls you--as it did me--or it makes you want to channel surf. For those with patience, however, Monk's five simple scenes for five performers and two musicians offer savory nuggets of musical and kinetic delight.
To better understand the world that surrounds your campers when they are home, watch TV on Saturday mornings and then channel surf over to The Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, and - yes - even MTV.
The thing you are watching fades out for a commercial break and you can switch it to the tiny screen and channel surf. When you see your program coming back on, you switch again and you're back watching what you want to watch - without ever having to sit through a commercial.
Sometimes people simply refer to the Internet by its nickname: "the Net." Internet users are said to "surf the Net" because they ride from one site to the next on their computers (like when you "channel surf" on the TV with a remote control).
Among the sensible: Gingrich wants prisoners to work and study in prison, not lift weights and channel surf. He'd expand the Earning by Learning program he helped pilot in Georgia, which gives poor kids a dollar for each book they read and has created scores of ghetto bibliophiles.