channel surf

channel surf

To frequently change channels when watching television, especially for an extended period of time. Primarily heard in US. After a long week of work, I like to just sit on the sofa and channel surf for a few hours. Here's the remote—you channel surf and see if you can find anything on TV. I channel surfed, and this dumb movie was the best thing on, unfortunately.
See also: channel, surf

channel-surfing

Quickly switching between channels on a TV, as while looking for a program to watch. I'm channel-surfing, but it doesn't look like anything good is on. After a long week of work, I need a few hours of channel-surfing on the sofa. I hate channel-surfing. I can't understand why people don't just pick a program and watch it!
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

channel surfing

Switching from one television station (channel) to another frequently, either to search for an interesting program or to keep track of several programs at once. For example, What did you see on TV last night?-Nothing much; I was just channel surfing. The term transfers the surfer's search for good waves to the viewer's search for programs. This practice became widespread with the use of remote-control devices for changing channels while remaining seated some distance from the television set. [1980s] A 1990s version is Internet surfing, a similar process for searching cyberspace.
See also: channel, surfing
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

channel surfing

verb
See channel hopping
See also: channel, surfing
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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References in periodicals archive ?
Dogs will soon be able to channel surf with the first TV remote for pets.
PAWS BUTTON; Dogs to get their own telly remote controls
Shopper Behavior: Today's savvy shoppers will channel surf, wait for the next promotion, check a price online or switch to private label before spending more than they expect on a product.
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Faced with a television set, viewers can use their keyboards to channel surf at their leisure between 16 channels, the contents of which are perfectly timed to the ebb and flow of the song.
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Or at least come back after we've had a quick channel surf.
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Viewers often channel surf to compare coverage on regional and global developments.
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It's great for someone who knows the channels by heart, but for most of us who channel surf, the button layout is annoying.
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With Groups, users can 'Channel Surf' the web by switching the view of the scrolling sidebar between the conversations and information they are most interested in at any moment.
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After renting a room at the Value Lodge, McCombs allowed the children to channel surf while she bathed.
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This old-fashioned, home-made staging either enthralls you--as it did me--or it makes you want to channel surf. For those with patience, however, Monk's five simple scenes for five performers and two musicians offer savory nuggets of musical and kinetic delight.
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To better understand the world that surrounds your campers when they are home, watch TV on Saturday mornings and then channel surf over to The Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, and - yes - even MTV.
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The thing you are watching fades out for a commercial break and you can switch it to the tiny screen and channel surf. When you see your program coming back on, you switch again and you're back watching what you want to watch - without ever having to sit through a commercial.
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Sometimes people simply refer to the Internet by its nickname: "the Net." Internet users are said to "surf the Net" because they ride from one site to the next on their computers (like when you "channel surf" on the TV with a remote control).
Why is the Internet called the "Internet" and "the Net?" Why do they call Internet users "Net surfers?"(Computer Zone)
Among the sensible: Gingrich wants prisoners to work and study in prison, not lift weights and channel surf. He'd expand the Earning by Learning program he helped pilot in Georgia, which gives poor kids a dollar for each book they read and has created scores of ghetto bibliophiles.
To Renew America
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