empyreanadj.n.

a1500 (?a1425) tr. Secreta Secret. (Lamb.) 47 (MED) Oon sect þat er namyd ypatetiks affermes þat he steigh to þe emperien heuene [L. empireum celum] yn þe semynge of fir.

1596 C. Fitzgeffry Sir Francis Drake sig. G7 The inke, the milke whence Via Lactea came; Th'empyrean heaven, the volume shalbe then.

1614 W. Raleigh Hist. World i. i. i. §4. 4 It pleased God first of all to create the Empyrean Heauen.

a1682 Sir T. Browne Christian Morals (1716) iii. 93 The Pearl we seek for is not to be found in the Indian, but in the Empyrean Ocean.

1786 T. Baldwin Airopaidia vii. 46 An universal Silence reigned! an empyrèan Calm! unknown to Mortals upon Earth.

1796 J. Morse Amer. Universal Geogr. (new ed.) I. 27 Above the starry sphere..finally the empyrean heaven, or heaven of heavens.

a1807 W. Wordsworth Prelude (1959) iv. 126 Drench'd in empyrean light.

a1839 W. M. Praed Poems (1864) II. 306 From the Courts of the Empyrean dome Came forth what seemed a fiery car.

1866 R. W. Emerson Dæmonic Love 48 So shall the lights ye pour amain Go..Through from the empyrean walls Unto the same again.

1901 Practitioner Mar. 241 Why not an ‘Epic of Malaria’?.. But such a theme would surely spur the stiffest-winged Pegasus to empyrean flights.

1933 ‘B. Ross’ Trag. of Z i. 3 My eyes, which contrive to be large, blue, and liquid, are..stellar in grandeur and empyrean in hue.

1969 H. Sienkiewicz Quo Vadis xli. 304 To open the empyrean doors it is evident that something greater is needed.

2010 West Austral. (Perth) (Nexis) 13 Mar. 56 A place among the gods, on the empyrean heights of movie history.

1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost vii. 73 Divine Interpreter..sent Down from the Empyrean . View more context for this quotation

1720 Delphick Oracle 27 Mar. 30 All that immense Vacuum, which shall reach from hence to the Empyrean or upper Heaven.

1761 tr. P. de Charlevoix Jrnl. Voy. N.-Amer. II. xxiv. 143 The master of heaven..threw her headlong from the height of the Empyrean.

1847 Ld. Lindsay Sketches Hist. Christian Art I. Introd. 32 The empyrean, the first work of creation and the residence and throne of God.

1878 S. Newcomb Pop. Astron. iv. 408 The empyrean, or kingdom of fire.

1904 F. Rolfe Hadrian VII x. 216 Here the Pontiff established Himself, with the noise of the world of men and its limitations on the one side; and, on the other, quiet and illimitable space wherein the soul might spread wings and explore the empyrean.

1942 ‘M. Innes’ Daffodil Affair iii. iii. 91 The papers were full of strange elysiums, cigar-and-whisky empyreans, revenants who reported lawn-tennis tournaments on the pavements of paradise.

1998 K. Lindskoog Paradise 178 In the Ptolomaic model of the universe, everything below the Empyrean revolved around the earth in nine concentric layers.

2007 N.Y. Times Mag. 9 Dec. 34/2 The professional bailiwick we've staked out is the empyrean of pure thought.

1727 W. Bowman Poems on Several Occasions 41 Myriads of Stars, Spangling the Empyrean.

1821 W. M. Craig Lect. Drawing v. 262 The vast empyrean of the sky.

1879 M. Pattison Milton xiii. 179 The physical universe itself [becomes] a drop suspended in the infinite empyrean.

1910 Presbyterian Banner (U.S.) 20 Jan. 9/2 The births and weddings in your family are of no more interest..than are the wreaths of smoke curling up into the empyrean.

1949 Baseball Digest Mar. 44/1 A sparrow blinked, then flew in rising circles into the empyrean.

1989 T. Tryon Night of Moonbow iv. Epil. 320 It was only a daytime star, winking there, and disappearing into the empyrean.

2000 J. Updike in Nat. Hist. Feb. 120/2 The Earth's heavy elements, including the substance of our bodies, were forged in the cataclysms of dying stars: this is our connection with the starry empyrean.