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.
No comments yet — say something.
(UK) An escalator.
No comments yet — say something.
Add your own interpretation of "moving staircase".
Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
See all Regional & Other slang on Slangora.