slidewalk n.

a moving pavement

  • 1944 F. Leiber Sanity in Astounding Science Fiction Apr. 168/1 page image Fritz Leiber bibliography

    He had stepped on to the corridor slidewalk and had coasted halfway to the elevator before he realized that Phy had followed him and was plucking timidly at his sleeve.

  • 1948 R. A. Heinlein Space Cadet 2 Robert A. Heinlein bibliography

    A pair of slidewalks stretched from the station to the hall; they stepped on to the one running towards the building. The slidewalk was crowded; more boys streamed out of the station behind them.

  • 1950 F. Leiber Martians, Keep Out! in Future combined with Science Fiction Stories July–Aug. 50/1 page image Fritz Leiber bibliography

    A chalked sign—Kill the Bugs—came coasting by on the slidewalk. Scat put down his foot in front of it and let the slidewalk do the erasing.

  • 1951 R. A. Heinlein It's Great to be Back! 75 Robert A. Heinlein bibliography

    They went on up to the subsurface level and took the crosstown slidewalk out to the rocket port. The slidewalk tunnel broke the surface at one point, becoming a pressurized shed; a view window on the west looked out on the surface of the Moon—and, beyond the hills, the Earth.

  • 1952 F. Pohl & C. M. Kornbluth Gravy Planet in Galaxy Science Fiction July 139/2 page image C. M. Kornbluth Frederik Pohl bibliography

    I stepped on the leftbound slidewalk and went past the door marked ‘Mail Room’, to the corridor juncture where my slidewalk dipped down around its roller.

  • 1968 F. Leiber in Galaxy Magazine Feb. 73/2 Fritz Leiber

    A private, eiderdown-surfaced slidewalk, rolled out like the red carpet of ancient cliche…carried them toward the most diamond-glittering pillar of them all.

  • 1972 E. Bryant Poet in Hologram in Middle of Prime Time in H. Harrison Nova 2 103 Edward Bryant bibliography

    He strode along with the flow of the slidewalk, doubling his rate of travel.

  • 1972 E. Bryant Poet in Hologram in Middle of Prime Time in H. Harrison Nova 2 103 Edward Bryant bibliography

    The slidewalk was a glass bead arch that spanned the hazy gulf between Ransom’s apartment block and the transit station.

  • 1973 L. Niven ARM in Long ARM of Gil Hamilton (1976) 117 Larry Niven bibliography

    They'd been found on the Wilshire slidewalk in West Los Angeles around 4:30 A.M. People don’t use the slidewalks that late. They're afraid of organleggers. The bodies could have traveled up to a couple miles before anyone saw them.

  • 1974 J. Haldeman Forever War (1976) 127–8 Joe Haldeman bibliography

    We could have taken the enclosed slidewalk but instead walked alongside it in the good cold air that smelled of fallen leaves.

  • 1986 L. M. Bujold Warrior's Apprentice (1997) 88 Lois McMaster Bujold bibliography

    ‘It was my understanding, my lord,’ said Bothari severely as they left Daum’s hotel for the slidewalk, ‘that Pilot Officer Mayhew here was to transport your cargo’.

  • 1986 G. R. R. Martin Tuf Voyaging (1987) 119 George R. R. Martin bibliography

    And the slidewalks, the tubetrains, the manufactories, all were advanced and efficient.

  • 1989 D. K. Moran Long Run 9

    It was a twenty-minute slidewalk trip from L'Express, at one end of the old Brooklyn Navy Yard, through streets lined by gray plastisteel residential high rises, to the Down Plaza at the other end of the development.

  • 2006 W. Shunn Inclination in Asimov’s Science Fiction Apr.–May 29 page image William Shunn bibliography

    We ride a slidewalk spinward, then crowd into a hubward elevator.

Research requirements

antedating 1944
Earliest cite

Fritz Leiber, 'Sanity'
Research History
Mike Christie submitted a cite from a 1973 reprint of Heinlein's "Space Cadet", which was verified by Rick Hauptmann in the 1948 first edition.
Enoch Forrester submitted a cite from a 1981 reprint of Larry Niven's "Ringworld"; Treesong verified the cite in the 1970 first edition.
Dan Tilque submitted a cite from a 1976 reprint of Larry Niven's story "ARM", in "The Long ARM of Gil Hamilton".
Enoch Forrester submitted a cite from a reprint of Pohl & Kornbluth's "The Space Merchants"; Mike Christie verified it in the 1952 magazine version.
David Silberstein submitted a 1989 cite from Daniel Keys Moran's "The Long Run".
Katrina Campbell submitted a cite from a reprint of Fritz Leiber's "Crazy Annaoj"; Mike Christie verified it in the 1968 original appearance.
Enoch Forrester identified and Edward Bornstein confirmed a cite in a 1997 reprint of Lois McMaster Bujold's 1986 "Warrior's Apprentice".
Malcolm Farmer submitted a cite from a 1987 reprint of George Martin's "Loaves and Fishes" in "Tuf Voyaging"; Mike Christie checked the 1985 first magazine appearance and discovered that the word was given as "sidewalk" in that version.
Malcolm Farmer submitted a cite from a 1975 reprint of Ed Bryant's 1972 "The Poet in the Hologram in the Middle of Prime Time" in Nova 2. Enoch Forrester submitted a 1950 cite from Fritz Leiber's "Martians, Keep Out!"
Fred Galvin submitted a cite from a 1958 reprint of Heinlein's "It's Great to be Back!"; we would like to verify this in its original publication (Saturday Evening Post, July 26, 1947).
Fred Galvin submitted a cite from a 1982 reprint of Fritz Leiber's "Sanity", which Mike Christie verified in its 1944 first publication.

Last modified 2022-09-23 17:39:50
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.