picture tube
1
5.8
- noun
- Archaic
:
tubo de imagen
- picture tube in your TV
- picture tube in your television
Examples
-
- Traditionally, it has three picture tubes.
-
More recently, the picture tube had begun to go, so I'd hear most programs but see very few.
Fiction book (1998) -
The color picture tube forms three separate electron beams and arranges their flight paths so that each beam illuminates only one color of phosphor.
Academic text (1999) -
The images that you see on a conventional TV screen, whether color or black-and-white, are produced by glowing phosphors that coat the inside surface of the picture tube (Figure 2).
Academic text (1999) -
Many older televisions use a picture tube to display images on the screen.
-
The technician inspected the picture tube to ensure it was functioning properly.
-
Upgrading to a flat-screen TV often means getting rid of the bulky picture tube models.
Synonyms
3
7.7
An old heavy TV or computer screen that uses a glass tube to show images
1
6.0
A large glass device in old TVs and computer screens that makes pictures with a beam of electrons
1
9.9
A glass tube with a screen that shows early TV pictures
A glass tube inside old TVs that makes the picture on the screen
A large glass part inside old televisions that shows pictures in color
A glass bulb inside older televisions that makes the screen show color pictures
Part of a television that shows pictures in color
A part of a television that uses three colors to make pictures
A part inside a color television that makes red, green and blue pictures
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a tube that displays pictures' is directly derivable from combining 'picture' (image/display) with 'tube' (a cylindrical electronic glass device). This is a straightforward noun–noun compound following regular English composition patterns (modifier + head), so even if the referent is a technical CRT, a B1 learner who knows the constituents will understand the basic meaning.
Etymology
Picture tube began as a simple name: the tube inside an old television that made the picture on the 'screen' by lighting the glass. So, today it means the tube that creates the TV image.