downalator

Noun

downalator (plural downalators)

1. (humorous, informal, rare) an escalator going downwards
   • “Your own true love has set his foot on the first step of the down-alator.”
     “The what?”
     “Opposite number of the escalator. The down-alator. It leads to the place where all bad critics go.”
     […]
     “I just don't want you on that down-alator, that's all.”
     “The what?”
     “Never mind.”1960, 38:20 and 42:05 from the start, in Please Don't Eat the Daisies (motion picture)
   • One of my children solved that one 25 years ago when he was little more than a toddler. As we were walking through a department store he told me he wanted to ride the “upalator,” but that the “downalator” was too scary for him.
   • Wouldn’t it be simpler to call them the upalator and the downalator? The only exception might be the escalator in the Centrum, the big department store in Warsaw. If I remember correctly, that machine only went up. It had no “down” counterpart.1988 May 29, Bob O’Sullivan, “Going Down an Elevator Is Rarely Uplifting”, in Los Angeles Times

   Antonyms:

   upalator