materialize v.

to appear in a (reconstituted) physical form after travelling through space or time by means of a matter transmitter or similar device

  • 1927 B. Witwer Radio Mates in Amazing Stories July 371/1 page image Benjamin Witwer bibliography

    Some weeks previously I had finally succeeded in transmitting a small wooden ball by radio. Perhaps I should say that I had ‘dissolved’ it into its vibrations, for it was not until this later day that I had been able to materialize or ‘receive’ it after it had been ‘sent’.

  • 1927 ‘F. Flagg’ Machine Man of Ardathia in Amazing Stories Nov. 801/1 page image Francis Flagg bibliography

    You must realize that a time traveler runs certain hazards. At any place on the road, he may materialize inside of a solid of some sort. In that case, he is almost certain to be blown up or otherwise destroyed.

  • 1935 L. Manning World of the Mist in Wonder Stories Sept. 413/1 page image Laurence Manning bibliography

    Suppose that we were to materialize right in front of a meteor going at half a mile a second—suppose we materialized in the middle of the earth? We'd not live a second!

  • 1937 E. F. Russell & L. T. Johnson Seeker of To-Morrow in Astounding Stories July 143/1 page image Eric Frank Russell Leslie J. Johnson bibliography

    ‘How did you know that I am a time traveler?’ I demanded. ‘Because your time-traveling device materialized out of thin air before the eyes of half a hundred citizens’.

  • 1955 R. Butler What Number Are You Calling? in Fantastic Oct. 85/1 page image Ron Butler bibliography

    Just then, something began to materialize in the ’porter…. It was Uncle Phil.

  • 1964 G. Roddenberry in S. E. Whitfield & G. Roddenberry Making of ‘Star Trek’ (1968) 48 Gene Roddenberry

    We get our first look at this procedure, too, as it beams them to materialize on the planet surface far below.

  • 1992 N. Stephenson Snow Crash 34 Neal Stephenson

    You can’t just materialize anywhere in the Metaverse, like Captain Kirk beaming down from on high.

  • 2003 T. Campbell My Big Toe 143

    Warp speed is perhaps not important if you can simply materialize yourself and your spaceship from any space-time-reality to any other space-time-reality.


Research History

Last modified 2021-01-05 18:50:44
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.