heavenward, adv. and a.
(ˈhɛv(ə)nwəd)
[f. heaven n. + -ward.]
A. adv. Towards heaven, in the direction of heaven. Orig. to heaven-ward: cf. toward.
| c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 3025 Moyses..warp es vt til heuene⁓ward. c 1350 Will. Palerne 102 To-heuene-ward he loked. 1390 Gower Conf. II. 151 How such thing to the hevenward Among the goddes mighte falle. c 1400 Melayne 135 He sawe a bryghtenes of a beme Up un-to hevenwarde glyde. c 1440 Jacob's Well (E.E.T.S.) 172 Þin herte is raysyd in sorwe in heueneward. 1580 Sidney Arcadia iii. xvi. 2 Poems 1873 II. 130 Your heads to heav'nward heaue. 1634 Habington Castara (Arb.) 89 When Pelion..saw, that raine which fell But now from angry Heaven, to Heaven ward swell. 1646 W. Jenkyn Remora 28 Shall we run with the swiftness of the Roe earthward, and go a dull Asses trot heaven⁓ward? 1681 J. Flavel Meth. Grace xxxi. 533 They would move..heavenward. 1784 Cowper Task vi. 818 Heav'n⁓ward all things tend. 1838 Marg. Fuller Wom. 19th C. (1862) 360 Above the heavenward-pointing spire. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. xvi. 106 The other summits, without a trace of cloud..pointed heavenward. |
B. adj. Directed towards heaven; tending or conducting towards heaven.
| 1795 Southey Joan of Arc v. 24 The reverend man..with heaven-ward eye Call'd on the God of Justice. 1799 Campbell Pleas. Hope ii, I smile on death, if Heaven-ward Hope remain. 1828 Moore If thou'lt be mine iii, Like streams that come from heavenward hills. |
Hence ˈheavenwardly adv., ˈheavenwardness.
| 1838 Blackw. Mag. XLIV. 612 The expansivity and soaring heavenwardness of the gases. 1839 Bailey Festus xix. (1848) 202 Echoes of Light, reacting heavenwardly. |