cloaking device

English

Etymology

1968. Coined by D. C. Fontana in the script for the Star Trek episode The Enterprise Incident.

Noun

cloaking device (plural cloaking devices)

1. (science fiction) A device which renders a person or thing invisible.
   • 1968, The Enterprise Incident (Star Trek), season 3, episode 2, Dorothy Catherine Fontana (actor):

     Spock: "I believe the Romulans have developed a cloaking device which renders our tracking sensors useless."

   • 1980, The Empire Strikes Back, Leigh Brackett, Lawrence Kasdan, and George Lucas (actors):

     Captain Needa: "They can't have disappeared. No ship that small has a cloaking device."

   • 2001, Jasper Fforde, The Eyre Affair:

     I put out my hand and touched the warm surface of the camouflaged Rolls-Royce. I was going to ask Mycroft if I could have the cloaking device fitted to my Speedster but I was too late; enthused by my interest he had trotted off to a large roll-top bureau and was beckoning me over excitedly.

Derived terms

• decloak

References

• Jeff Prucher, editor (2007), “cloaking device”, in Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction, Oxford, Oxfordshire, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN.
• Jesse Sheidlower, editor (2001–2024), “cloaking device n.”, in Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction.