phone zombie
- noun
- /foʊn ˈzɑm.bi/
- Offensive
:
zombi del móvil (despectivo)
- Try not to be a phone zombie when you're walking across the street.
Examples
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More and more commuters are turning into phone zombies on the morning train.
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Look at that phone zombie walking into the street!
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During meetings, he acts like a total phone zombie and misses important points.
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Many phone zombies can be seen in the city parks.
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More and more commuters are turning into phone zombies on the morning train.
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During meetings, he acts like a total phone zombie and misses important points.
-
Try not to be a phone zombie when you're walking across the street.
Synonyms
140
4.9
A person who moves and acts without energy or interest
1
8.2
A person who is very tired and cannot think or pay attention
A person who looks at their phone and ignores their surroundings while walking
A person who checks and uses phone apps all the time
How Distracted
Surface Forms
Morphology
This noun–noun compound combines the concrete word 'phone' with the metaphorical 'zombie', so a learner who knows both words can readily infer it refers to someone zombified by their phone (i.e., absorbed and oblivious). The metaphorical extension is simple and follows common cross-linguistic formation patterns, making the meaning directly derivable from the constituents for a B1 learner.
Etymology
Phone zombie comes from the image of someone staring at their phone and moving like a zombie, not seeing what is around them. That's why it means 'a person who is so absorbed in their phone that they are oblivious to their surroundings'.