The phrase is an initialism of too long; didn't read (or sometimes too long; don't read). The noun and verb are derived from the phrase.
Meanings
(Internet, transitive) To provide a short summary of (a text, an event, etc.); to summarize.
Fortunately, Sutton Stracke soon emerged from her bedroom to tell her friends that she had, in fact, read the entire story. Kyle [Richards] instantly begged her friend to TL;DR the "in-depth exposé," which she deemed "so friggin' long." 2021 August 20, Amy Kaufman, “‘Ted Lasso’ wrote a love letter to romantic comedies. We break down ‘rom-communism’ [Catch up]”, in Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 05 Jun 2024:
Extracts or overviews should be substituted as needed. But insofar as possible, the whole books should be read. First of all, because many thinkers simply cannot be tl;dr'd. Second of all, because wrestling with, and immersing yourself in, and just reading through whole books is part of the education. 2014 June 17, Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry, “Here’s How to Teach the Liberal Arts to High Schoolers”, in Forbes, New York, N.Y.: Forbes, Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 14 Jun 2024:
I'll tell you another thing that's ironic about the Vidal–Buckley [i.e., Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley Jr.] debates. Those debates can be TLDR'd into one of them calling the other "queer" as a pejorative and then the other calls the other a "fascist." 2021 June 30, Makena Kelly, quoting Hasan Piker, “Hasan Piker on the Problem with YouTube Debate Culture: ‘Personally, I Think All of This is Just Bullshit’”, in The Verge, archived from the original on 25 Feb 2024:
(Internet, intransitive) To provide a short summary of a text, an event, etc.; to summarize.
Royal Bank of Canada’s economics team have tl;dr'd why JGBs and the yen have had a fun morning: "it will be hard for markets not to see this move as a precursor for tightening policy". 2022 December 20, Louis Ashworth, “Turning Japanese?: One last rug pull before retirement”, in Financial Times, London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 09 Feb 2023:
Some highlights of the lowlights: "A dismal mess," says the New York Times. Its "shabby aesthetic and narrative shortcomings are outweighed by its more drastically questionable moral ones," says the Guardian. "It's not a good movie," Entertainment Weekly TL;DRs. 2018 June 16, Peter Kafka, “MoviePass Invested in ‘Gotti,’ the New John Travolta Mob Movie Everyone Hates”, in Vox, archived from the original on 02 Dec 2023:
The phrase is an initialism of too long; didn't read (or sometimes too long; don't read). The noun and verb are derived from the phrase.
Meanings
(Internet, derogatory, usually) Initialism of too long; didn't read (or sometimes too long; don't read). ▸ Used to indicate that one did not read a (long) text.
tl;dr 2002 December 21, Lenny Perkins, “My Thoughts on Metroid Prime (Long)”, in rec.games.video.nintendo (Usenet):
(Internet) Initialism of too long; didn't read (or sometimes too long; don't read). ▸ Used to introduce a short summary of an overly long text.
How I got to be an atheist is a fairly long and winding story, so I'll give you the "tl;dr" version—I was finally honest about myself that "the gods" just "weren't there." 2016, Jeffrey Flagg, “The Care and Feeding of Your Atheist Pagan”, in John Halstead, editor, Godless Paganism: Voices of Non-theistic Pagans, [Morrisville, N.C.]: Lulu.com, →ISBN, part 10 (Looking Forward: Non-theistic Pagan Community), page 351:
Incidentally, my absolutely favourite headline about the Duchess of Sussex's new coat of arms was: "Will Meghan Markle's new California-inspired coat of arms convince millennials to embrace traditional heraldry?" Tl;dr, no! 2018 May 30, Hadley Freeman, “The meaning of beige tights: they show what the Windsors will do to Meghan”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 27 Oct 2021:
es mt;nl (initialism of too long; didn’t read) · fr TLDR (initialism of too long; didn’t read) · uk зд;нч (initialism of too long; didn’t read) · nl tl;hng (initialism of too long; didn’t read) · fr trolonpalu (initialism of too long; didn’t read) · ru см;нч (initialism of too long; didn’t read) · fi lp;el (initialism of too long; didn’t read) · fr tl;nlp (initialism of too long; didn’t read) · he אמ;לק (initialism of too long; didn’t read) · de zl;ng (initialism of too long; didn’t read) · it tal;nhl (initialism of too long; didn’t read) · fr gépalu (initialism of too long; didn’t read) · eo tl;nl (initialism of too long; didn’t read) · pl zd;nc (initialism of too long; didn’t read)