What it means
A couch-potato is someone who spends hours slumped on the sofa watching telly and barely moving, remote in one hand, snacks in the other. It's the champion of doing nothing, the human dent in the cushions who'll happily binge a whole series rather than stand up. Said with a grin, usually about yourself on a lazy Sunday.
Usage examples
"I was a total couch-potato all weekend, didn't move except to refill the snacks."
"Get up off the sofa, you couch-potato, the sun's actually out for once."
"After that mad week at work, I turned into a full couch-potato on Sunday and rinsed half a season in one go."
"He's been in the same spot since breakfast, absolute couch-potato behaviour with crisps all over his hoodie."
Where it comes from
Coined in the US in the 1970s by cartoonist Robert Armstrong around his Couch Potatoes cartoon gag. The phrase mashes couch with potato to paint somebody parked in front of the TV, lounging so hard they may as well be part of the furniture.
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