hoverboard n.

a board, resembling a skateboard without wheels, which hovers above the ground using antigravity technology and may be ridden like a skateboard; cf. earlier hovercar n.

Associated chiefly with the Back to the Future film series. The term is now also used to describe a self-balancing scooter. There are several hoverboard-like devices, utilizing (for example) compressed air or magnets to achieve a similar hover effect.

Vehicles

  • 1964 E. Jesby Sea Wrack in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction May 72/1 page image Edward Jesby bibliography

    Greta Hijukawa-Rosen sat on the beach watching her escort maneuver a compression hover board above the waters of the Mediterranean. He stood on the small round platform, balancing it a few inches above the spilling tops of the wind-driven waves with small movements of his legs.

  • 1967 M. K. Joseph Hole in Zero M. K. Joseph bibliography

    He chattered on about girls and riverside dancehalls and hoverboard skating, and seemed to look with pleasure on Paradine, who was smugly daydreaming about the report which would be lying on Number One’s desk after lunch.

  • 1988 B. Gale Back to Future II (film script, revised draft) 18

    Hey, kid, I need your…hoverboard?

  • 2002 Electronic Gaming Monthly Mar. 135/1

    If…I could invent any means of transportation…an anti-gravity hoverboard would be near the top of my list.

Research requirements

antedating 1964
Earliest cite

Edward Jesby, in the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

Last modified 2021-01-28 10:49:59
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.