1(chiefly in science fiction) a means of transport resembling a skateboard that travels above the surface of the ground, ridden in a standing position.
‘an entire generation of kids grew up wishing they could one day ride a hoverboard’
‘That hoverboard made me really, really want to be living in the year 2015.’
‘Imagine how much easier it would have been for Riddick to totally outrun the sun if he would have had a hoverboard or jetpack.’
‘The Stealth Hoverboard from Go-Ped is exactly what I want: the "most evolutionary development in personal transportation since the foot."’
‘It's not the Hoverboard from Back to the Future, but close.’
‘The awesome hoverboard is back and at certain spots, players are forced to use it to travel from one point to another.’
‘It would be easy to climb up on my hoverboard, but the guards would have me on the ground before I was three feet in the air.’
‘So, you won't be taking your hoverboard out for a ride very soon, but the fact that Lifters can lift anything at all is a breakthrough for these weird science researchers.’
‘According to Lexus, the Hoverboard implements liquid nitrogen cooled superconductors and permanent magnets to help achieve the levitation effect.’
‘While the Hendo Hoverboard doesn't get as much air as the Marty McFly version, at least it's the real deal.’
‘Skateboarding is going airborne this fall with the launch of the first real commercially marketed hoverboard which uses magnetics to float about an inch off the ground.’
2Trademark A motorized personal vehicle consisting of a platform for the feet mounted on two wheels and controlled by the way the rider distributes their weight.
3A motorized personal vehicle consisting of a single central wheel with platforms for the feet on either side and controlled by the way the rider distributes their weight.
Origin
1980s from hover + -board (as in skateboard), popularized by the 1989 film Back to the Future Part II.
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