cloaking device

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

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cloaking device (plural cloaking devices)

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

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

   • 1980, Leigh Brackett, Lawrence Kasdan, George Lucas, The Empire Strikes Back, spoken by Captain Needa (Michael Culver):

     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.

• decloak

• 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 (2001–2025), “cloaking device n.”, in Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction.