Robert A. Heinlein
See all quotes from Robert A. Heinlein
33 First Quotations from Robert A. Heinlein
| anywhen adv. | 1941 Elsewhere in Astounding Science Fiction Sept. 100/1 The younger man glanced about him. ‘Where are the others?’ ‘Where? Anywhere,’ replied Frost with a shrug, ‘and anywhen. ’ |
| astrogate v. | 1941 Common Sense in Astounding Science-Fiction Oct. 138/2 My Chief Engineer assures me that the Main Converter could be started, but we have no one fitted to astrogate. |
| cold sleep n. | 1941 Methuselah's Children in Astounding Science-Fiction Aug. 96/1 By converting some of the recreation space to storerooms and adapting the storerooms thus cleared to the purpose of cold-sleep, the ship was roomy enough. |
| cold sleep v. | 1956 The Door Into Summer in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Oct. 14/2 Damnation, he was quite capable of refusing to let me cold-sleep. |
| dirtside adv. | 1953 Starman Jones 64 If you mess it up, I'll leave you dirtside and raise without you. Let me see you walk again. |
| Earthside n. | 1953 Starman Jones (1975) x. 104 The Ozarks. That’s Earthside. |
| Earthside adj. | 1949 Gulf in Astounding Science Fiction Dec. 75/2 The arming circuit and the radio relay to the Earthside trigger is located on the Moon in a building inside her private dome. |
| Earth-type adj. 2 | 1941 Methuselah's Children in Astounding Science-Fiction Aug. 98/1 To discover what sort and in particular whether it supported an Earth-type planet required a close approach at reasonably low speed. |
| ferry n. | 1941 Logic of Empire in Astounding Science-Fiction Mar. 10/1 The company has obligations to its stockholders…and it can’t afford to run an interplanetary ferry for the benefit of a class of people that feel that the world owes them a living. |
| fresher n. | 1940 Coventry in Astounding Science-Fiction July 78/1 ‘O.K.—shortly. Where’s the 'fresher?’ ‘Over there.’ It was not Dave’s idea of a refreshing chamber, but he managed to take a sketchy shower in spite of the slimy floor. |
| gravity well n. | 1952 Rolling Stones v. 70 In interplanetary trade cost is always a matter of where a thing is gravity-wise—not how far away. Earth is a lovely planet but all her products lie at the bottom of a very deep ‘gravity well’, deeper than that of Venus, enormously deeper than Luna’s. [Ibid. vi. 80] Blasting off from Luna is not the terrifying and oppressive experience that a lift from Earth is. The Moon’s field is so weak, her gravity well so shallow, that a boost of one-g would suffice. |
| grok v. | 1961 Stranger in a Strange Land 18 Smith had been aware of the doctors but had grokked that their intentions were benign. |
| groundlubber n. | 1939 Misfit in Astounding Science-Fiction Nov. 58/1 It’s a nuisance to have a bunch of ground-lubbers on board, sir. |
| mutation n. | 1941 Universe in Astounding Science-Fiction May 16/2 During that period our present wise rule of inspecting each infant for the mark of sin and returning to the Converter any who are found to be mutations was not in force. |
| mutie n. | 1941 Universe in Astounding Science-Fiction May 16/2 There is even some question as to the original meaning of the word ‘mutie’. Certainly they number among their ancestors the mutineers who escaped death at the time of the rebellion. But they also have in their blood the blood of many of the mutants who were born during the dark age. You understand, of course, that during that period our present wise rule of inspecting each infant for the mark of sin and returning to the Converter any who are found to be mutations was not in force. |
| nova v. | 1949 Gulf in Astounding Science-Fiction Nov. 89/1 You’ve heard of the asteroid ‘Earth-Anti’?… It ain’t there any more. It’s been novaed. |
| nova bomb n. | 1953 Gulf in Assignment in Eternity 80 Unless it is switched off any attempt to enter the building in which the arming circuit is housed will also trigger the ‘Nova’ bomb circuit. |
| parking orbit n. | 1941 Methuselah's Children in Astounding Science-Fiction Aug. 76/1 Approaching Earth, he called over the patrol frequency and asked for a parking orbit, as he did not wish to set the Chili down on Earth. |
| pseudo-gravitation n. | 1941 Methuselah's Children in Astounding Science-Fiction Sept. 138/1 Yet the pseudogravitation, the false weight, achieved by the spin of the ship, persisted. |
| pseudogravitational adj. | 1942 Waldo in Astounding Science-Fiction Aug. 50/2 He felt the pull of the pseudo gravitational field, felt his legs grow heavy. |
| slideway n. | 1942 in Astounding Science Fiction Apr. 9/1 Hamilton Felix let himself off at the thirteenth level of the Department of Finance, mounted a slideway to the left, and stepped off the strip. |
| space v. 2 | 1952 Rolling Stones 49 ‘Grandpa…how would you like to be spaced?’ ‘No future in it. Thin stuff, vacuum. Low vitamin content.’ |
| stasis field n. | 1942 Beyond This Horizon in Astounding Science-Fiction Apr. 31/1 Monroe-Alpha began to understand what they were talking about. It was the so-called Adirondack stasis field. It had been a three-day wonder when it was discovered, a generation earlier, in a remote part of the mountains from which it got its name. |
| suit up v. | 1948 Black Pits of Luna in G. Conklin Possible Worlds of Science Fiction (1951) 26 I’ll go with you. Let’s suit up. |
| torch n. | 1950 Satellite Scout in Boy’s Life Sept. 28 The Mayflower was top shaped. The point of the top was her jet—Chief Engineer Ortega, who showed us around, called it her ‘torch’. |
| torch v. | 1956 Double Star in Astounding Science Fiction Feb. 29/2 About seventeen seconds and a gnat’s wink after we make contact the Go For Broke will torch for Mars…for we’ve got to be there by Wednesday. |
| torcher n. | 1953 Sky Lift in Imagination Nov. 8/2 He held a torcher’s contempt for the vast distance itself. Older pilots thought of interplanetary trips with a rocketman’s bias, in terms of years—trips that a torchship with steady acceleration covered in days. |
| torchship n. | 1953 Sky Lift in Imagination Nov. 8/2 He held a torcher’s contempt for the vast distance itself. Older pilots thought of interplanetary trips with a rocketman’s bias, in terms of years—trips that a torch ship with steady acceleration covered in days. |
| Venerian n. 2 | 1948 Space Cadet 233 Oscar swore softly in Venerian. ‘They can do anything!’ |
| vibroblade n. | 1940 If This Goes On— in Astounding Science-Fiction Feb. 18/1 He won’t come to…. I slipped a vibroblade between his ribs. |
| waldo n. | 1942 Waldo in Astounding Science-Fiction Aug. 16/2 Even the…humanoid gadgets known universally as ‘waldoes’…passed through several generations of development…in Waldo’s machine shop before he redesigned them for mass production. The first of them…had been designed to enable Waldo to operate a metal lathe. |
| xenobiologist n. | 1954 Star Lummox in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction May 60 Once the xenobiologists got their hands on Lummox they would never let him go. |
| xenobiology n. | 1954 Star Lummox in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction May 60 I have never taken any interest in xenobiology. |