couch

To convey something very deliberately by saying it in a particular way or with particular wording. That professor always manages to couch her criticism in kind words, so I'm never too upset by her negative feedback. Would you just tell me directly what you're upset about, rather than couching every word in petulance? But I have to fire this poor girl. How exactly am I supposed to couch that in anything positive?

Someone who habitually engages in sedentary activities, usually understood as frequently watching television. Lisa wants to date a man who loves to travel and explore, not a couch potato who watches television all the time. I'm not letting you kids turn into couch potato this summer. Now put on your shoes, and let's go for a hike! This week seriously wore me out, that's why I've been nothing but a couch potato all weekend!

In receipt of psychoanalysis or emotional or psychological therapy, counseling, or treatment. (In such settings, the patient often reclines on a couch while speaking to the mental health professional.) Often used to describe a psychoanalytic evaluation or study of a particular person or cultural entity. His new book aims to put the American Midwest on the couch, exploring what makes people from that region so distinct in their mannerisms, behaviors, and emotional identities.

A phenomenon in which prospective employees (typically females) are propositioned for sexual favors in exchange for promised employment or career advancement. The practice is most associated with the entertainment industry, and the term refers to the actual piece of furniture in a casting director's office where such encounters may occur. According to many accounts, the casting couch is alive and well in Hollywood.

a lazy individual, addicted to television-watching. All he ever does is watch TV; he's become a real couch potato. Couch potatoes can tend to become very fat and unhealthy, you know.

to express something in carefully chosen or deceptive words. He tended to couch his explanations in arcane vocabulary. She couched her words in an overly polite manner.

COMMON If someone is a couch potato, they are lazy and spend most of their time sitting, watching television. Most evenings they sit, like a pair of couch potatoes in front of television. Most of these people are junk-food eating couch potatoes. Note: This expression is a complicated pun based on the American slang term `boob tube' meaning the TV, and the fact that a potato is a variety of tuber or root vegetable.

A physically lazy individual who prefers watching television to other leisure activities. This slangy expression, alluding to an inert object (potato) sitting on a sofa, was invented in the 1970s and quickly gained currency. It also has been suggested that the term is a play on boob tube (slang for television set), since a potato is a tuber. With the proliferation of remote-control devices, the dedicated television addict did not even need to get up to change programs or adjust the volume. The cliché is occasionally used more broadly as well, for anyone who is basically indolent.