telly

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɛli/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛli

Etymology 1

Shortened form of tele(vision) +‎ -y.

Noun

telly (usually uncountable, plural tellys or tellies)

(Commonwealth, Ireland)

1. (colloquial) Television.
   • 2007 August 24', Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 2, Episode 1:

     You're from telly!

   • 2021 June 30, Tim Dunn, “How We Made... Secrets of the London Underground”, in Rail, number 934, page 48:

     [...] they were all in agreement: this stuff had to be on the telly.

   Not much on telly tonight, as usual!

2. (colloquial) A television set.

   We've got a new flat-screen telly.

Usage notes

The plural is not used in the US.

Alternative forms

• tele (UK, rare)

Synonyms

• tube (US), TV

Derived terms

• telly tennis

Translations

television (medium) — see also television

• Cornish: telli m
• Czech: telka (cs) f
• Dutch: tv (nl) f
• Esperanto: televido
• Finnish: telkkari (fi), telkku (fi), teevee, töllö (fi)
• French: télé (fr) f, téloche (fr) f
• Hungarian: tévé (hu)
• Italian: tele (it) f
• Japanese: テレビ (ja) (terebi)
• Korean: 텔레비 (tellebi)
• Luxembourgish: Tëlee (lb) f
• Macedonian: телеви́зија f (televízija)
• Portuguese: tevê (pt) f
• Russian: те́лик (ru) m (télik)
• Sinhalese: ටෙලි (ṭeli)
• Spanish: tele (es) f
• Thai: ทีวี (th) (tii-wii)
• Welsh: teli m
• Yoruba: tẹ́lì

television set — see also television

• Czech: telka (cs) f
• Dutch: tv (nl) f
• Esperanto: televidilo
• Finnish: telkkari (fi), teevee
• French: télé (fr) f, téloche (fr) f
• German: Glotze (de) f, Fernseher (de) m, Flimmerkiste f
• Latvian: teļļuks m
• Portuguese: tevê (pt) f
• Russian: те́лик (ru) m (télik), я́щик (ru) m (jáščik) (colloquial)
• Sinhalese: ටෙලි (ṭeli)
• Spanish: tele (es)
• Ukrainian: тєлік m (tjelik)

Etymology 2

Shortened form of (ho)tel and/or (mo)tel +‎ -y.

Noun

telly (plural tellies)

1. (US, Canada, chiefly MTE, slang) A hotel or motel.

   I'm staying at the telly this weekend.

Anagrams

• Lytle