battleship n.

a military spaceship having heavy armor and powerful weapons

Vehicles

  • 1900 R. W. Cole Struggle for Empire iii. 46 Robert W. Cole bibliography

    A vast fleet was assembled at a short distance from London, ready to dash into space…. There were in all nearly 300 huge first-class battleships…and 500 swift ships to act as cruisers, besides numerous transports filled with soldiers.

  • 1928 E. E. Smith Skylark of Space in Amazing Stories Sept. 553/2 page image Edward E. Smith bibliography

    Aerial battleships, eight of ’em!… No wings—they act like helicopters.

  • 1941 M. Jameson Slacker’s Paradise in Astounding Science-Fiction Apr. 87/2 page image Malcolm Jameson bibliography

    That could only mean a Jovian battleship of the most powerful class, lying to in the vicinity! For the Federation boasted nothing bigger than the highly specialized start-class cruisers.

  • 1951 ‘J. McCreigh’ Danger Moon in Science Fiction Quarterly Aug. 46/1 page image Frederik Pohl bibliography

    He really wanted to blast us. And he had the stuff to do it with, too, with that baby battleship he was flying. It wasn’t his fault that we ducked and only got a little dose of the tail end of his rocket blast.

  • 1962 E. E. Smith & E. E. Evans Masters of Space in Worlds of If Jan. 105/2 page image Edward E. Smith E. Everett Evans bibliography

    One minute after the Terran battleship Perseus emerged into normal space, the Orion went into subspace for her long trip back.

  • 1966 S. R. Delany Babel-17 (1978) 246 Samuel R. Delany bibliography

    Rydra stepped into the spacious cabin of the battleship Chronos.

  • 1988 D. Carey Star Trek: Final Frontier 204 Diane Carey bibliography

    If this battleship is here, the Federation must be amassing along the treaty boundary. They must be!

  • 2007 W. Barton Rocket into Planetary Space in Asimov’s Science Fiction Apr.–May 101 page image William Barton bibliography

    The original Orion had been a pulsed-fusion spaceship, sort of an interplanetary battleship.

Research requirements

antedating 1900
Earliest cite

R. W. Cole, "Struggle for Empire"
Research History
Suggested by Simon Koppel.

Last modified 2021-04-12 15:11:38
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.