heat-ray

English

Etymology

The fictional sense was coined by British science fiction author H. G. Wells in 1896 in The War of the Worlds.

Noun

heat-ray (plural heat-rays)

  1. (science fiction) A weapon that fires a beam of extremely high temperature.
    Near-synonyms: ray-gun, ray gun, death ray, energy weapon
    • 1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 125:
      In the other cases the shells had missed, and the batteries had been at once annihilated by the Heat-Rays. Heavy losses of soldiers were mentioned[.]
  2. (dated) Synonym of calorific ray.
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