noun🎓 English idiom

couch potato

someone who spends a lot of time sitting watching TV

What it means

A couch potato is a person who's lazy and physically inactive, typically spending hours sitting on the sofa watching television or scrolling on a phone instead of being active. The phrase is mildly humorous and often used self-deprecatingly to describe a lazy weekend or a generally sedentary lifestyle.

Examples

  • I've been a total couch potato this weekend — three seasons in two days.
  • Don't be a couch potato; let's go for a walk before it gets dark.
  • He turned into a couch potato after he retired from teaching.
  • Sunday is officially couch-potato day in our house.

Where it comes from

American slang coined in 1976 by Tom Iacino in California — a pun on 'boob tube' (a slang word for TV) plus 'tuber' (a potato is a tuber). The phrase was later trademarked by Robert Armstrong, who illustrated it as a literal potato lounging on a sofa.

Related idioms

#night owl#early bird#bookworm#party animal

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