hull v.

(usu. passive) to rupture the hull of a spaceship

  • 1942 L. R. Hubbard Space Can in Astounding Science Fiction July 73/2 page image L. Ron Hubbard bibliography

    A small amount of Ensign Gates' placidity left his face. They were being severely knocked about by a vessel which had a longer range and a faster steering system, which was landing four hits to their two. ‘Hulled her!’ cried Ensign Wayton, an invisible source of death forward and above. Evidently something had happened to the Saturnian, for an instant later, in a steady stream, Wayton began to chant the Menace’s hits.

  • 1948 ‘R. Lafayette’ in Astounding Science Fiction Sept. 81/1 L. Ron Hubbard

    For she wasn’t hulled that he could see and her tubes at one end and her Texas at the other were untouched.

  • 1965 K. Laumer Retief’s War in Worlds of If Oct. 26/1 Keith Laumer

    It looks as though the rock that hulled us did more than take out the tracker. I have no horizontal gyros, and damned little control in my left corrector banks.

  • 1966 K. Laumer & R. G. Brown Earthblood in Worlds of If Science Fiction July 158/1 Keith Laumer Rosel George Brown bibliography

    There was a ship—oh, old, old, it was, Roan! Hulled in Deep Space by a rock half as big as a lifeboat, and drifting through space and centuries—until I found it. There was the body of a Man, frozen in an instant as the rock opened her decks to space.

  • 1977 B. Sparhawk Alba Krystal in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact Jan. 88/2

    Lots of ships get hulled in these skirmishes.

  • 1993 D. Carey Great Starship Race Prologue 14 Diane Carey

    Then the ship was being hulled and all would die.

  • 1995 E. Moon Winning Colors 306 Elizabeth Moon

    That patrol craft had almost hulled an assault carrier by itself.

  • 2008 J. Varley Rolling Thunder xii. 152 page image John Varley bibliography

    Now, if we were hulled, if all the air leaked out, I’d at least be able to breathe for a few hours before I froze solid.

Research requirements

antedating 1942
Research History
Michael Dolbear submitted a 1995 cite from Elizabeth Moon's "Winning Colors".
Mike Christie submitted a 1948 cite from "Rene Lafayette"'s "The Great Air Monopoly".
Mike Christie submitted a 1942 cite from L.Ron Hubbard's "Space Can".
Fred Galvin submitted a cite from a 1987 reprint of Keith Laumer and Rosel George Brown's "Earthblood", which Mike Christie verified in its 1966 first publication.
Jeff Prucher submitted a cite from a 2002 reprint of Keith Laumer's 1965 "Retief's War".
Irene Grumman submitted a cite from a 1972 reprint of Poul Anderson's "Escape From Orbit", which Mike Christie located in the 1962 original publication.
Ben Ostrowsky submitted a 2008 cite from John Varley.

Last modified 2021-03-01 23:22:15
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.