telly colloq.
(ˈtɛlɪ)
[Shortening of television. Cf. tele.]
1. = television 1. Phr. on (the) telly.
| [1940 Chambers's Techn. Dict. 837/2 Tellies, colloquialism for cinematograph films with sound; also for television.] 1942 Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §618/3 Lookies, tellies, telly. 1957 Observer 3 Nov. 4/5 For all practical purposes, if it hasn't been on telly, it doesn't exist. 1957 Economist 7 Dec. 842/1 An evening when Sheffield Wednesday were playing Juventus of Milan at football on the telly. 1958 M. Spark The Go-Away Bird 152 He said, ‘What do you do in the evenings, Lorna? Do you watch Telly?’ I did take this as an insult, because we call it TV, and his remark made me out to be uneducated. 1967 E. Williams Beyond Belief iii. xix. 204 Tonight, the eve of Christmas Eve,..they are watching telly, nice thriller. 1968 J. Arnold Shell Bk. Country Crafts 70 A growing tendency in domestic life of subordinating activities to the ‘telly’. 1970 G. F. Newman Sir, You Bastard iv. 117 On the news, on the telly this evening. 1977 New Yorker 26 Sept. 37/1 His parents lived an isolated life, but now had the telly. |
2. = television 2.
| 1955 M. Allingham Beckoning Lady i. 5 He..walked back to the village and the telly. 1957 F. King Man on Rock i. 7, I can't even afford to pay the never-never on a wireless, let alone a telly. 1969 A. Glyn Dragon Variation vi. 176 An occasional bluish light behind chintz curtains betrayed the night-owls, those who were still glued to the telly, watching the news headlines, the weather forecast. 1978 K. Amis Jake's Thing iii. 30 Let's be absolute devils and have the heating on and huddle round the telly. |
3. A television performance; a booking or session of filming for this. Theatr. and Broadcasting.
| 1963 E. Humphreys Gift 8 Every time I did a telly it was a lovely day, while I sweated my guts out under the artificial light. 1979 S. Brett Comedian Dies ii. 23 I've got you a telly... It's an Alexander Harvey Show. |
4. attrib. and Comb., as telly ad, telly don, telly mast, telly-viewer, etc.; telly man, a man who works professionally for a television service.
| 1958 Times Lit. Suppl. 15 Aug. p. xii/3 Turning their backs upon the ‘telly’ screen, they will strain their eyes in the semi-darkness of the living-room. 1960 C. MacInnes Mr Love & Justice 85 His part-time trade of mending radios and telly sets. 1963 Spectator 22 Feb. 230/3 The Third Programme..is becoming more and more a private club or experimental research establishment unwittingly financed by the telly-viewers. 1963 Punch 2 Oct. 475/1 Small vociferous pockets trying to attract tellymen. 1966 J. Betjeman High & Low 4 Slate cottages with sycamore between, Small fields and telly⁓masts and wires and poles. 1969 Fabian & Byrne Groupie (1970) i. 9, I even believe telly ads and things like that. 1971 Author LXXXII. 111 Many a paper fills its review columns with inoffensive, but basically uninteresting, books butchered to make a well-known telly don's holiday in the dead summer months. 1977 Irish Democrat Mar. 5/2 Surrounded by a regiment of security men, aides, advisers, journalists, tellymen and Unionists. 1977 Irish Times 8 June 11/5 But there might have been long telly⁓watching sessions behind locked doors. |