moving staircase
A charmingly old-fashioned British term for an escalator, popular in the early twentieth century before 'escalator' became the dominant word.
Definitions
A charmingly old-fashioned British term for an escalator, popular in the early twentieth century before 'escalator' became the dominant word. The phrase captures the wonderment felt by people encountering this technology for the first time — it's just a staircase that moves, which is both accurate and somehow more magical than the technical term. Still occasionally used today with a deliberate nostalgic or whimsical tone, especially by older speakers or writers going for period flavor.
Grandma still calls the escalator the moving staircase, and honestly it's a better name.
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(UK) An escalator.
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🇬🇧About British & Irish slang slang
UK and Irish slang — Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Brummie, Welsh, West Country, plus Irish English. Centuries of regional dialects feeding into modern British and Irish street talk.
See all British & Irish slang slang on Slangora.
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(Britain) A moving walkway.
- moving pavement60%
The British English term for what Americans call a moving walkway or travelator — a slow-moving conveyor belt built into a flat floor, typically found in airports, metro stations, and large exhibition centres. 'Pavement' in British English means what Americans call a sidewalk, making this a literal description of a moving floor surface.
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(chiefly, British, rare, or, dated) A flight of stairs.