▪ I. heaven, n.
(ˈhɛv(ə)n)
Forms: 1 heben, hefen, -on, heofon, -un, -en, hiofon, -un, heafen; heofene, -one; 2 heofone, hefene, 2–3 heofene, heouene, houene, 3 heauene, heofne, heoffne, heffene, heuone, 3–5 heuene, 4 hefen, heyuen, heiuen, -in; 4–5 hevyn, hewyn(e, -in(e, 4–6 heven, heuin, 5 heuon, -un, 6 heavin, 6– heaven.
[OE. heƀen, hefen, -on, heofon, -un, str. masc. = OS. heƀan, MLG. heven (Schiller-Lüb.), LG. hêben, hêwen, hæwen; in late OE. also heofone weak fem. (app. after eorðe, in heofonan and eorðan). The OE. form in eo was caused by u-umlaut before the ending -un, -on. Southern ME. had usually hevene, even in nom., perh. from heofone fem.; the more northern form in 13–14th c. was heven, i.e. hêven, whence c 1525 heaven with (ɛː), now shortened as in bread. Ulterior etymology unknown: not connected with hafjan to heave, the e being radical.
The LG. *heƀana-, *heƀuna-, was app. an entirely different word from Goth. himins, ON. himinn (:—*himina-), and OHG. himil (:—*himila-), whence Ger. himmel, Du. hemel; at least no connexion between them can, in the present state of our knowledge, be assumed. The alleged ON. hifinn, sometimes cited as a connecting form, has no existence (see Bugge Archiv II. 214). The existence of himil beside heƀan in OS. was possibly due to High German missionaries. The mod.Da., Sw., and Norw. himmel are also from German.]
1. a. The expanse in which the sun, moon, and stars, are seen, which has the appearance of a vast vault or canopy overarching the earth, on the ‘face’ or surface of which the clouds seem to lie or float; the sky, the firmament. Since 17th c. chiefly poetical in the sing., the plural being the ordinary form in prose: see c.
| Beowulf (Z.) 1571 Swa of hefene hadre scineð rodores candel. a 1000 Boeth. Metr. xxi. 77 Hiofones leohtes hlutre beorhto. c 1000 ælfric Gen. i. 8 And God het þa fæstnisse heofenan. a 1123 O.E. Chron. an. 1106 Wæron ᵹesewen tweᵹen monan on þære heofonan. c 1275 Lay. 27455 Ase heauene [c 1205 heouene] wolde falle. a 1300 Cursor M. 22694 Al that es vnder heuin [v.r. heiuin]. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints, Petrus 89 Þane lyftyt he his Ene to hewin. 1387–8 T. Usk Test. Love iii. iv. (Skeat) l. 94 The heuens iye, which I clepe y⊇ sonne. a 1400–50 Alexander 84 Any hathill vnder heuen. 1508 Dunbar Gold. Targe 89 A gounn Rich to behald..Off ewiry hew under the hevin. 1535 Coverdale Eccl. iii. 1 All that is vnder the heauen. 1585 T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. i. vi. 4 The ordinaunce..made such a great noyse and thunderyng that it seemed the heaven would have fallen. 1656 Stanley Hist. Philos. v. (1701) 187/2 Stars and Constellations; some fixed for the ornament of Heaven. a 1700 Dryden Ovid's Met. i. Wks. 1808 XII. 63 Heaven's high canopy, that covers all. 1796–7 Coleridge Poems (1862) 35 Still burns wide Heaven with his distended blaze. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. xv. 101 A serene heaven stretched overhead. |
b. Things of great height are said by hyperbole to reach to heaven; opposite points of the sky are said to be a whole heaven apart. Also
fig.| c 1000 ælfric Deut. i. 28 Micle burᵹa and oþ heofun fæste. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 93 Swa hehne þet his Rof astiȝe up to heofena. 1382 Wyclif Deut. i. 28 Greet citees, and in to heuene wallid [1611 walled vp to heauen]. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 147 Advauncing you with praises above hilles and mountaines, yea to the very heaven. 1731 Pope Ep. Burlington 59 That..helps th' ambitious Hill the heav'ns to scale. 1864 Tennyson Sea Dreams 100 Trees, As high as heaven. 1885 J. L. Davies Soc. Quest. 372 There must always remain a whole heaven of difference between the position of those who know nothing of nature..and that of those who recognise light and guidance..as coming to men from the living God. |
c. The plural
heavens was formerly used,
esp. in Biblical language (
transl. Heb. pl. shāmayim) in the same sense as the
sing.; it is now the ordinary prose form for the visible sky. Hence
maps of the heavens,
planisphere of the heavens,
globe of the heavens, etc.
| c 825 Vesp. Psalter viii. 4 [3] Ic ᵹesie heofenas werc fingra ðinra. 1382 Wyclif Ps. xviii[i]. 1 Heuenes tellen out the glorie of God. 1535 Coverdale Zech. viii. 12 The grounde shal geue hir increase, and the heauens shal geue their dew. 1590 Shakes. Com. Err. i. i. 67 What obscured light the heauens did grant. 1625 N. Carpenter Geog. Del. i. iv. (1635) 77 The Heauens..are carryed in 24 houres from East to West. 1812 Woodhouse Astron. i. 1 If, on a clear night, we observe the Heavens, they will appear to undergo a continual change. 1891 Law Times XC. 441/2 The Spectator..seemed to think the heavens must fall because the Press questioned the capacity of a judge. |
2. a. By extension (in accordance with Biblical use) the region of the atmosphere in which the clouds float, the winds blow, and the birds fly; as in the more or less poetical expressions,
the clouds,
winds,
breath,
fowls of heaven.
Rain or
dew of heaven, so called as falling (or supposed to fall) from the clouds.
| c 1000 ælfric Gen. xxvii. 28 Sylle þe God of heofenes deawe. 1382 Wyclif Job xxxv. 11 The bestis of the erthe..the foulis of heuene. ― Dan. vii. 2 Loo! foure wyndis of heuen fouȝten in the mydil see. 1563 W. Fulke Meteors (1640) 49 b, The water that commeth from Heaven, in raine. 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. iv. i. 78 The Mountaine Pines..fretted with the gusts of heauen. 1733 Pope Ess. Man iii. 38 The birds of heav'n shall vindicate their grain. 1864 Tennyson Aylmer's F. 429 Tears, and the careless rain of heaven, mixt Upon their faces. 1870 ― Window 146 Be merry in heaven, O larks, and far away. Mod. Exposed to every wind of heaven. |
b. In reference to the atmospheric conditions of a country, the clear or cloudy sky, etc.,
= climate.
| 1581 G. Pettie Guazzo's Civ. Conv. i. (1586) 26 Everie..Countrie, by the nature of the place, the climate of the Heaven, and the influence of the starres hath certaine vertues. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. I. 44 The clemencie of the hevin, and gentlenes of the wethir. 1697 Dryden Virg. Past. x. 94 Not tho' beneath the Thracian Clime we freeze; Or Italy's indulgent Heav'n forego. 1847 Tennyson Princ. Prol. 12 Flowers of all heavens..Grew side by side. |
3. a. The ‘realm’ or region of space beyond the clouds or the visible sky, of which the latter is popularly or poetically viewed as the ‘floor’.
Esp. in the collocation
heaven and earth, as constituting the universe.
| c 1000 ælfric Gen. i. 1 On anginne ᵹesceop God heofenan and eorþan. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 40 In firme bigining, of noȝt Was heuene and erðe samen wroȝt. 1382 Wyclif Mark xiii. 31 Heuene and erthe schal passe, forsothe my wordis schulen not passe. 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. v. i. 58 Looke how the floore of heauen Is thicke inlayed with pattens of bright gold. 1823 F. Clissold Ascent Mt. Blanc 23 A circle of thin haze..marked dimly the limits between heaven and earth. 1842 Tennyson St. Agnes' Eve iii, All heaven bursts her starry floors. 1862 Trollope Orley F. xix. (1866) 149 Papa..would move heaven and earth for her if he could. 1887 New Antigone xix. (1888) II. 97 Nothing in heaven or earth would have stayed her hand now. |
b. The plural is sometimes used for the realms or regions of space in which the heavenly bodies move.
| 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. (1837) I. 683 Lifted up far above the starry heavens. 1726 tr. Gregory's Astron. I. 95 The Planets and Comets move in the Heavens very freely. 1838 Nichol (title) Views of the Architecture of the Heavens. 1860 Ruskin Mod. Paint. vii. iv. V. 152 The Heavens, for the great vault or void, with all its planets, and stars, and ceaseless march of orbs innumerable. |
† c. transf. A model showing the motions of the heavenly bodies; an orrery, a planetarium.
Obs.| 1600 Nashe Summer's Last Will Wks. 1885 VI. 88 Euery man cannot, with Archimedes, make a heauen of brasse. 1605 Verstegan Dec. Intell. ii. (1628) 52 The heauen of siluer which..was sent vnto Soliman the great Turke wherein all the planets had their seuerall courses. |
4. In the language of earlier cosmography: Each of the ‘spheres’ or spherical shells, lying above or outside of each other, into which astronomers and cosmographers formerly divided the realms of space around the earth. These generally corresponded to the spaces supposed, according to the Ptolemaic system, to be comprised within the successive orbits of the seven planets (including the sun and moon), the fixed stars, and other spheres. Their number varied according to computation from seven to eleven.
| 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 7567 Sere hevens God ordaynd for sere thyng..þese hevens er oboven us heghe..Ane es þat we þe sterned heven calle..Ane other es þat clerkes calles cristallyne [etc.]. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. viii. ii. (1495) 296 Heuens ben seuen namyd in this manere Aereum Olimpium Igneum Firmamentum Aqueum, Imperium, Celum. c 1400 tr. Secreta Secret., Gov. Lordsh. (E.E.T.S.) 95 Þer ar nyne heuens, oon in erthe, þe oþer amonge hem seluyn, ilk oon amonge oþer; þe firste & þe souerayne of þe speres, is þe spere couerant, and þanne with-ynne þat þe spere of þe sterrys; after þat þe spere of Saturne, and so to þe spere of þe mone, vnder whom ys þe spere of þe elemenz, þat er fyre, Eyre, water, and erthe. þe Erthe þanne ys yn þe myddyl stede of þe oþer elementz. 1559 W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 210 Whatsoever is conteined within the circuit of the heaven of the Mone. 1594 Blundevil Exerc. iii. i. iii. (ed. 7) 280 What doth the celestiall part containe? The eleven Heavens and Spheares. Ibid. 281 In ascending orderly upwards..The first is the Spheare of the Moone..The fourth, the Spheare of the Sunne..The seventh, the Spheare of Saturne. The eighth, the Spheare of the fixed stars, commonly called the firmament. The ninth is called the second movable or Christal heaven. The tenth is called the first movable. And the eleventh is called the Imperiall heaven, where God and his Angels are said to dwell. 1783 Hoole Orl. Fur. xiii. (Brewer), Sometimes she deemed that Mars had from above Left his fifth heaven, the powers of men to prove. 1832 Tennyson Mariana in South 92 Deepening thro' the silent spheres Heaven over Heaven rose the night. |
| fig. 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, Prol. 2 O For a Muse of Fire, that would ascend The brightest Heauen of Inuention. |
5. a. The celestial abode of immortal beings; the habitation of God and his angels, and of beatified spirits, usually placed in the realms beyond the sky; the state of the blessed hereafter. Opposed to
hell.
| c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Matt. vi. 9 Fader ure þu þe eart on heofene. c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 45 Grið on eorðe and grið on hefene. Ibid. 79 Engles in houene. c 1200 Ormin 3263 To brukenn heffness blisse. c 1205 Lay. 21442 Þu woldest to hæuene. a 1300 Cursor M. 24783 (Cott.) He suar be þe king of heuen. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints, Petrus 16 To þe I gyff þe keys of hewyne. c 1470 Henry Wallace xi. 1236 Scotland he fred, and brocht it off thrillage, And now in hewin he has his heretage. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems lxxxi. 100 Sufficience dwellis nocht bot in heavin. 1544 Suppl. to Hen. VIII, 21 Teache the people to gett heuen with fastynge. 1581 G. Pettie Guazzo's Civ. Conv. iii. (1586) 157 b, Marriages (as they saie) are made in heaven, and are guided by destinie. 1622 Bacon Hen. VII, Wks. 1825 III. 275 Stirring both heaven and hell to do him mischief. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 263 Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav'n. 1803–6 Wordsw. Intim. Immort. v. 9 Heaven lies about us in our infancy. 1855 Browning An Epistle 141 Heaven opened to a soul while yet on earth, Earth forced on a soul's use while seeing heaven. 1858 Sears Athan. iii. ix. 326 Heaven is not the firmament overhead, but the condition of the redeemed after death, of which the blue serene gives us the appropriate symbol. 1879 C. Rossetti Seek & F. 22 Heaven is the presence of God: the presence of God, then, is heaven. |
b. Also in
pl. [In its origin a literalism of
transl.—L.
cæli,
Gr. οὐρανοί,
Heb. shāmayim:
cf. 1 c.]
| c 950 Lindisf. Gosp. Matt. vi. 9 Fader urer ðu arð in heofnum vel in heofnas [Vulg. in cælis]. c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Matt. xviii. 18 Swa hwylce swa ᵹe ᵹe-bindað ofer eorþan þa beoþ ᵹebundene on heofonum. c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 42 Heiris and kyngis of þe kyngdom of heuenys. 1548 Udall, etc. tr. Erasm. Par. Acts 16 a, He..sitteth and reigneth in high heauens aboue. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. x. 386 Leiuing the course of this lyfe tha pas to the heuinis. 1611 Bible Heb. iv. 14 Wee haue a great high Priest, that is passed into the heauens. |
c. By the Jews (at least in later times) seven heavens were recognized; the highest, called also ‘heaven of heavens,’ being the abode of God and the most exalted angels. Thence also the seven heavens of Muhammad.
This division was probably of Babylonian origin, and founded on astronomical theories (
cf. 4).
| c 1000 ælfric Deut. x. 14 Heofon and heofuna heofun. c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints, Paulus 948 Paule..thocht þat he was rewyst ewine..to þe thred hewyne, & syne in paradis. 1382 Wyclif Ps. cxiii. [cxv] 16 The heuene of heuene [c 1430 MS. S. heuenys] to the Lord; the erthe forsothe he ȝaf to the sones of men. 1382 ― 2 Cor. xii. 2, I woot a man in Crist..rauyschid til to the thridde heuene. 1560 Bible (Genev.) Ps. cxlviii. 4 Praise ye him heauens of heauens, and waters, that be aboue the heauens. 1611 Bible 1 Kings viii. 27 The heauen and heauen of heauens cannot conteine Thee. 1688 Prior Ode Exod. iii. 106 The Heaven of Heavens, the high abode, Where Moses places his mysterious God. 1734 G. Sale Koran (1764) II. 178 And we have created over you seven heavens. 1841 Lane Arab. Nts. I. 20 According to the common opinion of the Arabs there are seven Heavens, one above another. 1858 W. Muir Mahomet II. 219 From Jerusalem he seemed to mount upwards, and ascend from one Heaven to another. |
d. The seat of the celestial deities of heathen mythology.
| 1382 Wyclif Jer. vii. 18 Thei make sweete cakis to the quen of heuene. 1588 Shakes. Tit. A. iv. iii. 40 With Ioue in heauen, or some where else. a 1700 Dryden Ovid's Met. i. Wks. 1808 XII. 69 Against beleaguered heaven the Giants move. 1791 Cowper Iliad xi. 60 Aurora, now on the Olympian height Proclaiming, stood new day to all in heaven. 1841 Elphinstone Hist. Ind. I. iv. 169 The heaven of Siva is in the midst of the eternal snows and glaciers of Keilas, one of the highest and deepest groups of the stupendous summits of Himalaya. |
e. transf. and
fig.| 1810 Montgomery W. Indies iii. 23 In the clear heaven of her delightful eye, An angel-guard of loves and graces lie. |
6. a. The power or majesty of heaven; He who dwells above; Providence, God. (With capital H.)
| c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Luke xv. 21 Fæder, ic synᵹude on heofon, and beforan ðe. 1388 Wyclif Dan. iv. 23 [26] Aftir that thou knowist that the power is of heuene. 1593 Drayton Essex Wks. 1753 II. 602 Envy..Affecting the Supremacy of Heaven. 1640 tr. Verdere's Rom. Romants i. 3 The heaven takes care of your quiet. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 212 The will And high permission of all-ruling Heaven. 1692 Dryden St. Euremont's Ess. 347 Sometimes Heaven ordains, and Nature makes an opposition. 1816 Scott Bl. Dwarf iii, ‘For Heaven's sake, no’, said his companion. 1819 Shelley Cenci v. iv. 57 Sweet Heaven, forgive weak thoughts! 1885 Edna Lyall In Golden Days III. xiv. 299 How in heaven's name did you manage it all? |
b. Also in
pl. The powers above; the gods; God.
| 1579 G. Harvey Letter-bk. (Camden) 62, I hope in the heavens my chin will on day be so favorable and bountifull unto me. c 1592 Marlowe Massacre Paris i. iii, The Heavens forbid your highness such mishap! 1611 Bible Dan. iv. 26 After that thou shalt haue knowen that the heauens doe rule. 1640 tr. Verdere's Rom. Romants i. 174 The heavens..made me yesterday seek to save you. 17.. Siege of Aubigny 118 Whatever power the Heavens have favoured me with. 1859 Tennyson Geraint & Enid 893 She was ever praying the sweet heavens To save her dear lord whole from any wound. |
c. In asseverations:
by († through, before, 'fore) heaven, (heavens).
Cf. by prep. 2.
The sense in c and d is somewhat indefinite, probably including the place and its Divine Lord or inhabitants:
cf. Matt. v. 34, xxiii. 22.
| [c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Matt. xxiii. 22 Seþe swerað on heofonan [Lind. on heofne, Rushw. be heofune, Vulg. in cœlo], he sweryð on godes þrymsetle, and on þam þe ofer þæt sitt.] c 1400 Destr. Troy 8313, I may not hate hym, by heuyn, þat me in hert tes. 1610 B. Jonson Alch. i. Wks. (Rtldg.) 240/2 Not I, by heaven. Ibid. 241/2 Fore heaven, I scarce can think you are my friend. 1716 Addison tr. Ovid Wks. 1753 I. 176 By heav'n the story's true. 1752 C. Lennox Fem. Quix. viii. iii. II. 187 ‘By Heavens!’ cried Glanville..‘there's no bearing this’. 1859 Tennyson Merlin & V. 341 By Heaven that hears, I tell you the clean truth. 1887 A. C. Gunter Mr. Barnes of N.Y. xviii. (1888) 135 He commenced to strut and hector about..and cry, By Heavens. |
d. In exclamations expressing surprise, horror, etc. (Also in
pl.). Often with qualifications, as
good,
gracious,
great. Also
Heaven and earth!;
Heavens above,
Heavens alive!;
Heavens to Betsy! (
U.S.).
| 1588 in Nichols Progr. Q. Eliz. (1823) II. 559 O Heavens! O Earth! O never-dying Fame! 1610 Shakes. Temp. i. ii. 59 O the heuens, What fowle play had we. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 23 ¶7 Heavens! Is it possible you can live without Remorse? 1752 C. Lennox Fem. Quix. viii. iii. II. 187 Good Heavens! cried Mr. Glanville..quite out of patience, I shall go distracted! Ibid. ix. i. 209 Oh, heavens!.. this must..be a very notable adventure. a 1777 Dodd Fanny Melmouth (1799) 96 ‘Heaven and earth!’ exclaimed Miss Melmouth, ‘what will become of me?’ 1801 A. Opie Father & Dau. (1809) 102 Gracious Heaven! who are you? 1819 J. Marcet Conv. Nat. Phil. ii. (1851) 36 Heavens, Emily, what an idea! 1887 Frith Autobiog. II. iv. 75 Great heaven! What a place to stop at! 1892 R. T. Cooke Huckleberries fr. New England Hills 173 ‘Heavens to Betsey!’ gasped Josiah. 1895 A. W. Pinero in M. R. Booth Eng. Plays of 19th Cent. (1969) II. 275 They say Orreyed has taken to tippling at dinner. Heavens above! 1913 ‘S. Rohmer’ Mystery of Fu-Manchu xix. 205 The eyes—heavens above, the huge green eyes! 1914 Dialect Notes IV. 74 Heavens to Betsy! Common Exclamation among women. 1957 M. Summerton Sunset Hour i. 56 Heavens alive, it's ten past one. I haven't been up so near dawn for years. 1958 Hayward & Harari tr. Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago ii. viii. 246 But Heavens above! You misunderstood us. What are we talking about? 1968 ‘E. V. Cunningham’ Cynthia (1969) xi. 130 ‘Oh, heavens to Betsy, I am scared, Harvey,’ Lucille whispered. |
e. Heaven knows. (
a) Used to emphasize the truth of a statement. (
b) Used to imply that something is unknown to the speaker, and probably also to others. Freq. with
what,
where,
who.
Cf. god 10.
| [1605 Shakes. Macbeth v. i. 52 Shee ha's spoke what shee should not, I am sure of that: Heauen knowes what shee ha's knowne.] 1711 Addison Spect. No. 164 ¶5 Heaven only knows how dear he was to me whilst he liv'd. 1805 Wordsworth Prelude xi. 141 Not in Utopia—subterranean fields,—Or some secreted island, Heaven knows where! 1872 Geo. Eliot Middlem. IV. viii. lxxiv. 198 She invites clergymen and heaven-knows-who. a 1916 ‘Saki’ Square Egg (1924) 125 From privates in the Regular Army to Heaven-knows-what in some intermediate corps. 1936 Delineator CXXIX. 48/3 It was clearly apart from the spirituals..and heaven knows, was unlike any music that America had been playing before. 1967 Listener 26 Jan. 117/1 Heaven knows, there are old excuses for it. 1969 Ibid. 13 Mar. 351/2 Heaven knows, he'd been through this often enough in the past. |
7. fig. a. A place like or compared to heaven; a place of supreme bliss.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. x. 300 For if heuene be on this erthe..It is in cloistere or in scole. 1546 J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 33 They that be in hell, wene there is none other heven. 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. ii. i. 243, I follow thee, and make a heauen of hell. 1660 Sp. in Ho. Comm. 14 Nov. in Cobbett Parl. Hist. (1808) IV. 145 England, that was formerly the heaven, would be now the hell for women. 1667 Milton P.L. i. 254 The mind is its own place, and in it self Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n. 1725 Pope Odyss. vi. 22 A heav'n of charms divine Nausicaa lay. 1810 Scott Lady of L. ii. viii, Ere Douglasses, to ruin driven, Were exiled from their native heaven. 1831 Carlyle Nibelungen-Lied in Misc. Ess. (1872) III. 142 Here for eleven days..there is a true heaven-on-earth. |
b. A state of bliss or supreme felicity.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus ii. 777 (826) It an heuene was hire voys to here. 1546 J. Heywood Prov. (1867) 70 Husbandes are in heauen whose wiues scold not. 1596 Spenser Hymn to Love 244 What heauens of ioy, then to himselfe he faynes. 1604 Middleton & Dekker 1st Pt. Honest Wh. i. i. (Dalbiac) O what a heaven is love! O what a hell! 1625 Bacon Ess., Truth (Arb.) 501 Certainly, it is Heauen vpon Earth, to haue a Mans Minde Moue in Charitie, Rest in Prouidence, and Turne vpon the Poles of Truth. 1678 Butler Hud. iii. i. 935 And like an Anchorite, gives over This World for th' Heaven of a Lover? 1792 S. Rogers Pleas. Mem. i. 59 The clock..That faithful monitor, 'twas heaven to hear, When soft it spoke a promised pleasure near. |
c. In same senses:
heaven of heavens,
seventh heaven,
third heaven. (
fig. from 5 c.)
| 1824 Scott St. Ronan's xxvi, He looked upon himself as approaching to the seventh heaven. 1883 Rita After Long Grief xxii, Lady Ramsey was in the seventh heaven of delight. 1885 J. H. McCarthy Camiola I. vii. 156 The heaven of heavens into which he presumed, an earthly guest, was the West End of London. |
† 8. transf. [from 7]. A quintessence.
Obs.| 1460–70 Bk. Quintessence 2 Philosophoris clepen þe purest substaunce of manye corruptible þingis elementid, quinta essentia, þat is to seie, mannys heuene. Ibid. 13 How þat ȝe may wiþ oure heuene drawe out euery 5 essencia from alle þingis aforeseid. |
9. transf. [from 1]. A canopy; the covering over a stage. [F.
ciel,
Ger. himmel.] In the 19th c.
quots. directly
fig. from sense 1.
| 1486 Surtees Misc. (1888) 54 In the entre..shalbe craftely conceyvid a place in maner of a heven..under the heven shalbe a world desolaite. 1611 Cotgr., Volerie,..a place ouer a stage which we call the Heauen. 1612 Heywood Apol. Actors ii. D ij b, The couerings of the stage, which wee call the heauens..were Geometrically supported by a Giant-like Atlas. 1821 Shelley Prometh. Unb. iii. iii. 140 Bright golden globes Of fruit, suspended in their own green heaven. a 1822 ― Two Fragm. Love ii. 3 Under a heaven of cedar boughs. |
10. attrib. and
Comb. a. Simple
attrib.: in sense ‘of heaven’. (Many of the early
ME. instances in
hevene are
prob. examples of the genitive case:
cf. Lady-day,
Lady-chapel,
Bride-well, etc.).
| a 1000 Phœnix 173 Under heofun-hrofe. c 1000 ælfric Past. Ep. in Thorpe Laws II. 382 Into his fæᵹeran heofon⁓healle. c 1220 Bestiary 227 If he leue haue of ure heuen louerd. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 101 Ðe firmament..mai ben hoten heuene-Rof. Ibid. 281 Al ðe ðhinges..Twen heuone hil and helle dik. Ibid. 1547 Heuene dew, and erðes fetthed. a 1300 Cursor M. 8290 (Gött.) An angel com fra heuen trone. Ibid. 18741 (Cott.) Þe toþer us come fra heuen ture. 1390 Gower Conf. III. 102 Under the heven cope. c 1440 Gesta Rom. ii. lvi. 373 (Add. MS.) The Ioye of heuyne life. 1591 Sylvester Du Bartas i. ii. 555 Many Heav'n-floods in our Floods do lose. 1667 Milton P.L. xii. 52 Ere the Tower Obstruct Heav'n Towrs. 1844 Mrs. Browning Rhapsody Life's Progr. viii, On the Heaven⁓heights of Truth. 1870 Max Müller Sc. Relig. (1873) 172 We have in the Veda the invocations dya{utilde}s p{iacu}tar..and that means..Heaven-Father! 1882 J. Parker Apost. Life I. 43 God came down in the great heaven-wind and the great heaven-fire. |
b. Obj. and
obj. gen., as
heaven-climber,
heaven-worshipper;
heaven-assailing,
heaven-defying,
heaven-kissing,
heaven-rending,
heaven-threatening, etc.
adjs. (Mostly since 1600: their number is practically limitless.)
| 1602 Shakes. Ham. iii. iv. 59 Mercurie New lighted on a heauen-kissing hill. 1602 Carew Cornwall (1811) 272 Set forth, against that heaven-threatening Armada. 1645 Quarles Sol. Recant. xi. 60 When that blood pleads, heav'n will not lend an eare If heav'n-engaging Charity be not there. a 1671 Marvell Poems, Billborow Hill, The cliff Of heaven-daring Teneriff. 1780 Cowper Table-t. 418 Perjury, that Heaven-defying vice. 1818 Keats Endym. i. 284 Giving out a shout most heaven-rending. 1827 Keble Chr. Y. Whitsun Mond., Heaven-assailing cries. 1880 G. Meredith Trag. Com. (1881) 252 The whole Alpine..heaven-climbers. |
c. Instrumental and locative, as
heaven-accepted,
heaven-begot,
heaven-descended,
heaven-dyed,
heaven-fallen,
heaven-forsaken,
heaven-given,
heaven-made,
heaven-protected,
heaven-sprung,
heaven-taught, etc.
adjs. (The number of these is unlimited: nearly all since 1600.) Also
heaven-born,
heaven-sent.
| 1591 Shakes. Two Gent. iii. ii. 72 Much is the force of heauen-bred Poesie. 1600 S. Nicholson Acolastus (1876) 57 Diuine Aurora full as faire as she, Whose heauen-di'de face the Graces still admire. 1606 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. iii. Magnificence 386 Words of the Heav'n-prompted stile. 1659 W. Chamberlayne Pharonnida iii. iii. (1820) II. 52 The heaven-built pillars of his soul. 1667 Milton P.L. x. 535 All yet left of that revolted Rout Heav'n-fall'n, in station stood. 1693 Tate in Dryden's Juvenal Sat. xv. (1697) 374 Prometheus Ghost is sure o'er-joy'd to see His Heav'n-stol'n Fire from such disaster free. 1715–20 Pope Iliad ix. 803 The fall of Heaven-protected Troy. 1718 Rowe tr. Lucan 314 The Heav'n-instructed Shipman thus replies. 1727–46 Thomson Summer 1010 Who heaven-inspired To love of useful glory rais'd mankind. 1742 Young Nt. Th. iii. 2 Reason, that Heav'n-lighted Lamp in Man. 1777 Potter æschylus (1779) I. 60 (Jod.) Heav'n-sprung, or mortal? if permitted, say. 1787 Burns Verses in Kenmore, Here poesy might wake her heav'n-taught lyre. 1849 Hare Par. Serm. II. 227 In the free heaven-lit atmosphere of the Gospel. 1865 Pusey Truth Eng. Ch. 256 The Heaven-controlled Seer. |
d. Adverbial, ‘to or toward heaven’, as
heaven-affianced,
heaven-aspiring,
heaven-dear,
heaven-devoted,
heaven-erected,
heaven-translated, etc.
e. Similative, as
heaven-clear,
heaven-sweet, etc.
f. Parasynthetic, as
heaven-hued, etc.
adjs. See also
heaven-high, -wide, etc.
| 1591 Sylvester Du Bartas i. 667 Heav'n-bent souls. 1597 Shakes. Lover's Compl. 215 The heaven-hued sapphire. 1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. ii. ii. Babylon 564 Mong the Heav'n deer spirits. 1607 J. Davies Summa Totalis K j b, Then (with that Heu'n-rapt Saint) rapt Muse ascend. a 1711 Ken Christophil Poet. Wks. 1721 I. 526 A Heav'n-aspiring Mind. a 1711 ― Hymnotheo Ibid. III. 155 With a Heav'n-erected Look. 1772 W. Hodson Ded. Temp. Solomon 19 This Heav'n-devoted Shrine. 1821 Lamb Leisure, The heaven-sweet burthen of eternity. 1839 Bailey Festus xx. (1848) 253 The Heaven-affianced spirit. 1858 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Jrnls. II. 126 This heaven-aspiring tower. |
11. Special combinations:
† heaven-bow, rainbow;
heaven-bridge, bridge of the dead;
heaven-burster (see
quot.);
heaven-gazer, (
a) one who gazes at the sky, who studies the stars, an astrologer; (
b) a fish, the star-gazer; so
heaven-gazing;
heaven-god, a celestial deity, a god of the heaven or sky;
heaven-plant = heaven-tree;
heaven-send, something received as sent specially from heaven, a godsend;
heaven-tree, a mythical tree, which figures in some Malay and Polynesian beliefs, as reaching from the under-world to the earth, or from earth to heaven;
heaven-worshippers, a Judæo-Christian sect (
Cœlicolæ) of the fourth and fifth centuries. Also
heaven-bliss, etc.
| c 1320 Cast. Love 743 For *heuene-bouwe is abouten i-bent, Wiþ alle þe hewes þat him beþ i-sent. |
| 1865 Tylor Early Hist. Man. 352 Like the *Heaven-Bridge, the Heaven-Gulf which has to be passed on the way to the Land of Spirits, has a claim to careful discussion. |
| Ibid. xii. 349 The Polynesians..still call foreigners ‘*heaven-bursters’, as having broken in from another world outside. |
| 1535 Coverdale Isa. xlvii. 13 The *heauengasers & the beholders of starres. 1611 Cotgr., Tapecon, the Heauen-gazer; a scalelesse sea-fish..hauing..a great head, on whose top his eyes (wherewith he lookes directly vpward) are placed. |
| 1593 Nashe Christ's T. Wks. 1883–4 IV. 82 Excessiue staring, and stedfast *heauen-gazing. |
| 1871 Tylor Prim. Cult. II. 235 The Aztec Tlaloc was no doubt originally a *Heaven-god, for he holds the thunder and lightning. |
| 1865 ― Early Hist. Man. xii. 346 A story..which contains the episode of the *heaven-plant. |
| 1811 H. Martyn in Mem. iii. (1825) 436 This was a *Heaven-send. 1887 Century Mag. Nov. 45/2 The man who has been away, is a heaven-send in a village. |
| 1865 Tylor Early Hist. Man. 348 note, In the Samoan group..there was a *heaven-tree, where people went up and down, and when it fell it stretched some sixty miles. |
▸ The place to which the spirit of an animal,
esp. a pet, is believed to go after death, regarded as existing exclusively for a particular type of animal. Usu. with modifying word designating the type of animal, as
dog heaven,
cat heaven, etc.
| 1867 J. W. De Forest Miss Ravenel's Conversion xxvi. 368 Perhaps it has gone to the dog heaven, and is wagging somewhere in glory. 1931 Jrnl. Negro Hist. 16 15 Other Negroes think of each animal having his own special heaven (dog-heaven, cat-heaven, and so on). 1985 E. Dundy Elvis & Gladys vii. 98 If dogs have a heaven Old Shep has a wonderful home. 2004 Western Mail (Cardiff) (Nexis) 17 July 15 Goronwy has gone to goldfish heaven where he is swimming in a beautiful clear blue ocean with all the other fishies. |
▸ With modifying word: a notional place where people or things associated with the specified activity, or of the specified type, are imagined to go when they die, decline, or fall into disuse.
| 1972M. Sanders in Flash (Electronic ed.) The Dave Clark 5 deserve a place in Rock & Roll Heaven right along there beside Question Mark & The Mysterians, the Standells, Count Five, the Troggs, and the Music Machine. 1994 Inside Soap Aug. 47/1 It's from this activity that the perpetual rumour of a sequel comes, but the truth is Eldorado has been committed to soap heaven. 2003 Church Times 1 Aug. 28/3 Ricky bumps it into the garden, and tells me it is going to ‘the cooker heaven’. ‘Where it will be this size,’ adds his wife, her hands making the size of a brick. She means that it is off to the squasher. |
▸ With modifying word: a place, state, or condition of supreme bliss for the specified kind of animal or person.
Cf. hog heaven n., nigger heaven
n. 1.
In
quot. 1879 with reference to geese, who were apparently allowed to wander freely around the streets of Easthampton, New York.
| 1879J. H. Payne in Scribner's Monthly Feb. 470/2 His pet name for Easthampton is ‘Goose-heaven’, and he harps upon the idea eternally. 1962 C. M. Wilson Common Sense Credit viii. 146 Indiana is still a cabinetmaker's and furniture collector's heaven. 1986 Newsweek (Nexis) 3 Feb. 70 The building was once a candy factory, which makes it, Frazier says, mouse heaven. 2000 M. Gayle Turning Thirty xl. 164 In front of me was bloke heaven. There..was..a state-of-the-art widescreen TV and a hi-fi separates system. |
▸ With modifying word: a place which is ideal or idyllic for a lover of the specified object, substance, etc., on account of its abundance or quality there; the state or condition of such a person in such a place.
| 1908 Chicago Tribune 5 Oct. 3/1 One gray beard who found the gates closed shinned up the fifteen foot fence..and dropped into the baseball heaven he was seeking. 1929 Ironwood (Mich.) Daily Globe 4 Nov. 9/8 We can't imagine getting any closer to a football heaven then [sic] when John Gorrilla caught Ahonen's pass on the Stambaugh 20 yard line. 1950 Waterloo (Iowa) Daily Courier 14 Dec. 17 (advt.) ‘A trip through candy heaven!’ Rich selection of choice chocolate candies. 1991 Wines & Spirits Apr. 28/1 Between those and the Arcachons Bordeaux was oyster heaven. 2006 Cairns (Queensland) Post (Nexis) 25 Apr. 26 An evening of music heaven for the jazz lovers of the Far North. |
▪ II. ˈheaven, v. [f. prec. n.] trans. To make heavenly in character, to transport or transform into heaven; also, to bless with heaven, beatify, render supremely happy.
| 1627–47 Feltham Resolves i. xlviii. 153 They are idle Divines that are not heav'ned in their lives, above the unstudious man. 1637 Rutherford Lett. (1862) I. 225 Surely I were rich enough, and as well heavened as the best of them, if Christ were my heaven. a 1650 T. Adams Pract. Wks. (1861) I. 194 (D.) He heavens himself on earth, and for a little pelf cozens himself of bliss. 1655 H. Vaughan Silex Scint. i. Search (1858) 34 He heav'nd their walks, and with his eyes Made those wild shades a Paradise. 1839 Bailey Festus xxxvi. (1848) 365 Heaven our spirits, Hallow our hearts. |
▪ III. heaven obs. form of
haven.