a couch potato

couch potato

Someone who habitually engages in sedentary activities, usually understood as frequently watching television. Lisa wants to date a man who loves to travel and explore, not a couch potato who watches television all the time.
See also: couch, potato
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

couch potato

a lazy individual, addicted to television-watching. All he ever does is watch TV; he's become a real couch potato. Couch potatoes can tend to become very fat and unhealthy, you know.
See also: couch, potato
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

a couch potato

INFORMAL
COMMON If someone is a couch potato, they are lazy and spend most of their time sitting, watching television. Most evenings they sit, like a pair of couch potatoes in front of television. Most of these people are junk-food eating couch potatoes. Note: This expression is a complicated pun based on the American slang term `boob tube' meaning the TV, and the fact that a potato is a variety of tuber or root vegetable.
See also: couch, potato
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed.

couch potato

someone who watches a lot of television, eats junk food, and takes little or no physical exercise. informal
Couch potato was a humorous American coinage using the image of a person with the physical shape of a potato slouching on a sofa or couch. Originally, the phrase relied on a pun with tuber in the slang term boob tuber , which referred to someone devoted to watching the boob tube or television.
See also: couch, potato
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

a ˈcouch poˌtato

(informal, disapproving) a person who spends a lot of time sitting and watching television
See also: couch, potato
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary

couch potato

n. a lazy, do-nothing television watcher. (see also sofa spud.) If there was a prize for the best couch potato, my husband would win it.
See also: couch, potato
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

couch potato

A physically lazy individual who prefers watching television to other leisure activities. This slangy expression, alluding to an inert object (potato) sitting on a sofa, was invented in the 1970s and quickly gained currency. It also has been suggested that the term is a play on boob tube (slang for television set), since a potato is a tuber. With the proliferation of remote-control devices, the dedicated television addict did not even need to get up to change programs or adjust the volume. The cliché is occasionally used more broadly as well, for anyone who is basically indolent.
See also: couch, potato
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • couch potato
  • sofa spud
  • spud
  • weedhead
  • swinger
  • mouse potato
  • pill-popper
  • popsie
References in periodicals archive
If you'd rather be a couch potato than find an outfit, wear makeup and dance all night, we still have you covered.
Time to Start Watching Movies Legally: Netflix in the Middle East!
If you're a bit of a couch potato, it promises that within nine weeks it can help you run 5k or for around half an hour.
Plenty of support to get you moving
Don't be a Don't be a couch potato couch potato A COUCH potato lifestyle is linked to a significantly greater risk of certain cancers as well as heart disease and diabetes, research has shown.
Don't be a couch potato
Don't be a Don't be a couch potato couch potato Don't be a Don't be a couch potato couch potato A COUCH potato lifestyle is linked to a significantly greater risk of certain cancers as well as heart disease and diabetes, research has shown.
Don't be a Don't be [...]; s
Prof Gleeson told a conference at the University of Liverpool: "If you have a tendency to be a couch potato then you probably have an average risk of catching an infection - typically 2-3 URTIs per year.
How walkers beat colds and flu
The routine segments are "Smart Fitness, Smart Foods", "Step It Up!", "Invite A Vitamin To Dinner", "(I'm Not Gonna Be) A Couch Potato!", "Veggie Power", "Mission Nutrition", "Happy To Be Me", and "It's Been A Really Good Day".
The Smart Fitness Workout
A DIET pills company wants to pay someone pounds 23,750 a year to be a couch potato and gorge on junk food.
SLOB-A-JOB; Diet firm will pay couch potato pounds 23k a year
"I was a couch potato. It got me down but it wasn't until I visited my grandmother's graveside and I couldn't breathe that I panicked and realised it had finally beaten me.
DOWN AND OUT ON THE COUCH; GLASGOW TOPS UK'S LAZIEST CITY POLL
That's part of a couch potato's staple diet - if he can do it, so can we.
MY TELLY...
Roll on 2012: definitely a time to be a couch potato.
Sound bites ... where PE readers offer their views on issues of the day
And 20% described themselves as a couch potato or as someone who never exercises.
Struggling for breath
Q I AM a bit of a couch potato but as a late New Year's resolution I started going to the gym.
I'M A COUCH POTATO AND GYM LEFT ME FLAT ON MY BACK
The point of all this information is to emphasise to Windy that I can oppose wind factories and not be a couch potato. I can assure you, GW, couch potatoes do not have near 11-year-old dogs as fit as mine.
Letter: Voice of the North - Against wind factories but no couch potato
On the other hand, Rosie says nothing nice about her brother (a couch potato and budding dope dealer), her mother (a beautician with orange hair), her father (long gone), or her uncle (the real reason her grandfather was sent away).
Moloney, James. Black taxi
But don't let Fluffy become a couch potato. New research shows that lack of exercise and overfeeding have made obesity, or being very overweight, a big problem for pets today.
Couch-potato pets