Definition of "cable television" [cable television]

• A television distribution system in which station signals, picked up by elevated antennas, are delivered by cable to the receivers of subscribers. Also called cable TV, community antenna television. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The spot, which aired on cable television and the Web, shows a clueless blue-shirted store salesman stammering and shrugging when a customer asks him to explain the difference between two laptops."
• "Riding a bull stock market and the expansion of cable television networks devoted solely to investors—CNBC and CNNfn, in particular—E*Trade saw its accounts soar to nearly 2.5 million by May 2000."
• "Originally known as CATV community antenna television, cable television debuted in the late 1940s in a mountainous region of Pennsylvania when a local TV salesman became frustrated that he couldn’t sell sets because customers could not receive a signal."