space dinghy n.

a small spaceship; a lifeboat or shuttle

Vehicles

  • 1941 J. Powell Mutiny in Space in Amazing Stories Sept. 67/2 page image Jep Powell bibliography

    The story will be that Lady Maud was blown to bits by an internal explosion. We were the only survivors. We were drifting around in a space dinghy when the Jovian raider came along and rescued us. Neat, eh?

  • 1952 ‘A. Boucher’ Star Dummy in Fantastic Fall 54/2 page image Anthony Boucher bibliography

    That’s why I had to land. You see, she went off by herself in the…. I think if I invent the word ‘space dinghy’ it will give you the idea. I warned her that the…well, an important part was defective; but we had just had a small quarrel and she insisted on spiting me. She never came back. [both ellipses in original]

  • 1953 F. Leiber Green Millennium (1980) xx. 249 page image Fritz Leiber bibliography

    Approaching Earth, they put their ship into an orbit and rendered it invisible. For about two more years they stayed in the ship, except for careful exploratory trips in a gravity-diverting space dinghy.

  • 1968 ‘J. Boyd’ Last Starship from Earth xiv. 171 page image John Boyd

    ‘But sir,’ he turned to Fairweather, ‘how did you get her back to earth?’ ‘A device for exploiting the capabilities of the negative time formula. It’s not a spaceship, really. More a space dinghy. I’m sure you can deduce the type of vehicle we used.’

  • 1969 P. Anthony Macroscope 17 page image Piers Anthony bibliography

    ‘Our shuttle.’ Somehow Ivo had visualized a pint-sized rocket, a space-dinghy built for two. He should have known better. The launch vehicle was thirty-three feet in diameter at the base and not much smaller at the top.

  • 1974 Z. Hughes Seed of the Gods in UFOs: The Greatest Stories (1996) ii. 225 page image Zach Hughes bibliography

    Although Orton was well-known and had been scouted hundreds of times in the not-so-distant past, she observed all the rules for approaching an alien world, ordering out a scout party in the space dinghy.

  • 2021 C. J. Anders Victories Greater Than Death liii. 273 Charlie Jane Anders bibliography

    The Unquenchable finally notices us, and reaches out with an ion harness to pull our little space dinghy inside their cargo hold.


Research requirements

antedating 1941

Research History
Suggested, and most cites submitted, by Ben Ostrowsky.

Last modified 2021-07-28 15:05:10
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.