Dictionary

cultural barbiturate en · NOUN

Meanings

1. (derogatory, slang, uncommon) Synonym of television.
   • Why should so much of television be a cultural barbiturate, a tranquilizer for the ills and anxieties of our age? 1990, Paul Rutherford, When Television was Young, Primetime Canada, 1952-1967, page 423:
   • For almost a quarter of a century, the medium has been used, in the words of Jack Gould of the New York Times, as a "cultural barbiturate" that "kills time efficiently and economically". 2005, Robert Stein, Media Power, Who Is Shaping Your Picture of the World?, page 23:
   • Critics mockingly refer to television as a "cultural barbiturate" and joke about "mainlining the tube." 2002, Marie Winn, The Plug-In Drug - Television, Computers, and Family Life, page 36:

Synonyms

television