telly n.1
1. television; also attrib.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Billboard 14 Nov. 3: (heading) RCA–NBC tele progress . | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | ‘The Television Set’ Hancock’s Half-Hour [Radio script] Oooooohhh, you’ve got a telly. | |
| Hamlet of Stepney Green Act I: Now if they’d give me a chance on the tele I’d wake them all up. | |
| Dream of Peter Mann Act II: Haven’t I seen you before, somewhere? On Tele maybe. | |
| All Night Stand 182: Toys, novelties, telly programmes and the odd extra concert. | |
| Family Arsenal 52: Anything on telly? | |
| 1985 (1980) 186: Sexually precocious, of course. A telly addict. | |
| West in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 93: A kicking if they get in front of Arsenal v. Spurs on telly. | |
| Observer 27 Dec. 32: Sarah Ferguson on the telly. | |
| Yes We have No 183: A back up tele, in case the first does a wobbly. | |
| Crumple Zone 6: Wideload mother in floral pink eating biscuits in front of the tele. | |
| Guardian Rev. 26 Feb. 8: The British term ‘telly’, as opposed to the American ‘box.’. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | (con. 1960s-70s) Top Fellas 9/2: We were one-eyed Anglophiles. | |
| Thrill City [ebook] You’ve been all over the papers and the telly here. | |
| Panopticon (2013) 101: Telly off now, up to bed, Anais. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Glorious Heresies 10: When you saw them on the telly [...] they always looked a bit off. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | February’s Son 93: [N]othing on the telly. |
2. (US black) a hotel [SE hotel].
| ‘Ebonics’ 🎵 A hotel’s a telly, a cell phone’s a celly. |
In compounds
an obsessive watcher of television.
| Newsweek on Campus Nov. 14: We telespuds respond, gathering around the electronic hearth to watch everything from M*A*S*H to ‘Mr Ed.’. |
any attractive young female television presenter.
| Indep. on Sun. Real Life 18 July 3: She is not teletotty. |