Meanings
- derogatoryslanguncommonSynonym of television.
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 362 more examples
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 423For 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 23Synonyms: television
Synonyms & antonyms
nounSynonym of television.
Cite this entry
cultural barbiturate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cultural%20barbiturate
“cultural barbiturate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cultural%20barbiturate. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cultural barbiturate,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cultural%20barbiturate.
Source: cultural barbiturate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.