antigrav n.

= antigravity n.; (also) a device that negates the force of gravity

  • 1941 T. Sturgeon Artnan Process in Astounding Science-Fiction June 56/2 page image Theodore Sturgeon bibliography

    The ship settled down gently, her antigrav plates moaning.

  • 1945 Startling Stories Summer 6/1

    Well, cut off my antigravs and call me flighty—it really is here.

  • 1954 D. R. Hughes Breathing Space in Vargo Statten Science Fiction Magazine Jan. 61/2

    ‘There’s a ship gravving up from your colony, Angstol,’ said Tulketh absently, as he gazed dreamily at his own screen. ‘Well, I suppose they'll have developed some sort of chemical rockets by now if they're--did you say GRAVVING up?’… There below them, the familiar gleaming silver shape of a planetary ship was slowly ascending, with its longitudinal axis horizontal in the time-honoured manner of pre-blasting precautions. ‘They have got antigravs’ screeched Largoth, frantically. ‘We must not be seen !’

  • 1958 ’P. Ashwell’ Unwillingly to School in Astounding Science Fiction Jan. 38/2 page image Pauline Ashwell bibliography

    [T]here is a knock at my bedroom window at maybe three hours. I am not properly awake and do not think to question how somebody can be there, seeing it is five hundred feet up the tower; I open the window and B falls inside. I am just about ready to conclude I must be dreaming when B unstraps a small antigrav pack, mountaineering type, and says Somebody offered her the beastly thing as a secondhand bargain, she has been trying it out and it doesn’t work.

  • 1974 J. Blish Star Trek 10 83 James Blish

    Quiet and undisconcerted, Spock went to the box, affixing anti-gravs to it.

  • 1993 J. Brunner Muddle Earth 161 John Brunner

    How exactly did acrobats and tumblers using antigrav for extra bounce correspond to ‘the crowned heads of India and Indonesia (simulated)’?

  • 1995 D. Carey & J. I. Kirkland First Frontier iv. xxxiv. 343

    Organize all hands and have them pick up the scattered pieces of the platform and those antigravs over there and the tools down the slope.

  • 1996 W. Shatner Return v. 29 William Shatner

    He felt the abrupt tug of the antigravs pulling on his equipment harness.

  • 2015 P. S. Kemp Lords of the Sith vii. 93 page image Paul S. Kemp bibliography

    Other vessels, already crewed, lurched into the air on their antigravs.


Research requirements

antedating 1941

Earliest cite

Theodore Sturgeon,'The Artnan Process'

Research History
Mike Christie submitted a cite from 1945.
Bill Seabrook located and Mike Christie confirmed a 1941 cite from Theodore Sturgeon's "Artnan Process".
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 2015 cite from Paul S. Kemp.
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 1958 cite from Pauline Ashwell.

Earliest cite in the OED: 1953.

Last modified 2021-11-15 20:12:10
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.