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单词 heaven
释义

heavenn.

Brit. /ˈhɛvn/, U.S. /ˈhɛv(ə)n/
Forms: early Old English heben (Anglian), early Old English hefaen (Northumbrian), early Old English hiaben (Kentish), early Old English hiefen (Mercian), early Old English hiofan, Old English heafen (rare), Old English heafn- (Northumbrian, inflected form), Old English heafun (rare), Old English hefn- (inflected form, rare), Old English hefun (rare), Old English hefyn (rare), Old English heofan, Old English heofn- (inflected form), Old English heofun, Old English heofunn (Northumbrian), Old English heofyn (rare), Old English hiofen, Old English hiofon, Old English–early Middle English hefon, Old English–early Middle English heofen, Old English–early Middle English heofene, Old English–early Middle English heofon, Old English–early Middle English heofone, Old English (rare)–early Middle English hoefen, Old English–Middle English hefen, Old English (rare)–Middle English hefene, Old English–Middle English heouene, late Old English hæfæn, late Old English hæofæn, late Old English hefeon (dative, probably transmission error), late Old English heofæn, late Old English–early Middle English hefone, late Old English–early Middle English heofne, late Old English–early Middle English heouen, late Old English–Middle English heuene, late Old English–Middle English heuon, late Old English–1600s heuen, early Middle English eofen, early Middle English hæfen, early Middle English hæfene, early Middle English hæuen, early Middle English hefenn ( Ormulum), early Middle English heffne ( Ormulum), early Middle English heofenn ( Ormulum), early Middle English heoffne ( Ormulum), early Middle English heoun- (in compounds), early Middle English heoune, early Middle English houen, early Middle English houene, early Middle English–1600s heauen, early Middle English–1600s heauene, Middle English efne, Middle English euen, Middle English euene, Middle English evene, Middle English ewen, Middle English heeuen, Middle English hefne, Middle English heiuen, Middle English heiuin, Middle English heua (transmission error), Middle English heuone, Middle English heuun, Middle English hevene, Middle English hewen, Middle English hewene, Middle English hewin, Middle English hewine, Middle English hewn, Middle English hewuyn, Middle English hewyn, Middle English hewyne, Middle English heyuen, Middle English hoevene, Middle English–1500s heuin, Middle English–1500s heune, Middle English–1500s heuyn, Middle English–1500s hevyne, Middle English–1500s hewne, Middle English–1600s hevyn, Middle English– heaven, Middle English– heven (now chiefly archaic), 1500s heuine, 1500s heun, 1500s–1600s heau'n, 1500s– heavin (now nonstandard), 1500s– heav'n (chiefly poetic), 1600s heav'en, 1600s heoven, 1600s heu'n, 1800s– 'eaven (nonstandard), 1800s– heeaven (English regional (Yorkshire)); U.S. regional (chiefly southern and south Midland, in African-American usage ) 1800s heaben, 1800s heabun, 1800s heav'm, 1800s heavun, 1800s heben, 1800s heven, 1800s hevun, 1800s– heavin, 1800s– hebben, 1800s– heving, 1900s– heabm, 1900s– heavm, 1900s– hiven; Scottish pre-1700 hauin, pre-1700 hauyn, pre-1700 havyn, pre-1700 hawin, pre-1700 heauen, pre-1700 heauin, pre-1700 heaving, pre-1700 heavun, pre-1700 heawen, pre-1700 heawin, pre-1700 heuine, pre-1700 heun, pre-1700 heune, pre-1700 heuyn, pre-1700 hevin, pre-1700 hevine, pre-1700 hevinn, pre-1700 hevyn, pre-1700 hevyne, pre-1700 hewen, pre-1700 hewene, pre-1700 heweyne, pre-1700 hewin, pre-1700 hewine, pre-1700 hewyn, pre-1700 hewyne, pre-1700 heyuyn, pre-1700 1700s haven, pre-1700 1700s–1800s heavin, pre-1700 1700s–1800s heven, pre-1700 1700s– heaven, pre-1700 1800s heuin, pre-1700 1800s– heiven, 1700s hea'n, 1700s–1800s haiven, 1800s h'aven, 1800s heevan, 1800s heevin', 1800s heien, 1800s heivin, 1800s– heeven, 1800s– heevin, 1900s– heevn, 1900s– hiven, 1900s– hivin, 1900s– hivven; also Irish English 1700s heavin, 1700s heoven, 1800s haaven; also with capital initial (esp. in religious contexts)
Origin: A word inherited from Germanic.
Etymology: Cognate with Old Saxon heƀan , Middle Low German hēven (German regional (Low German) Heben , Heven , Häben , Häven ), probably showing a dissimilated variant of the same Germanic base as is shown by Gothic himins , Old Icelandic himinn (also hifinn , rare), Old Swedish himin , Old Danish himæn ; a further variant (with either dissimilation of the final consonant or a different suffix) is probably shown by Old Dutch himil (Middle Dutch hemel , Dutch hemel ), Old High German himil (Middle High German himel , German Himmel ); further etymology uncertain and disputed; perhaps ultimately < the same Indo-European base as hame n.1 (compare also shame n.), with an underlying sense ‘to cover’.Another suggestion connects the Germanic words with a series of words in Greek, Indo-Iranian, Baltic, and Slavonic which on formal grounds appear all to be related to one another and which appear to show ‘stone’ as their basic sense but also ‘sky’ or ‘heaven’ or related meanings in some languages (compare e.g. Avestan asman- stone, heaven, Old Persian asman- heaven, Sanskrit aśman stone, although in this case it is doubtful whether the sense ‘heaven’ can be referred back to Indo-European rather than showing a later innovation); some scholars also attempt to link hammer n.1 with the same group of words. However, aside from the difficulties which arise in explaining the semantic relationships between these words, the formal connection with the Germanic words for ‘heaven’ is far from certain, and therefore this theory is rejected by many. In addition to the forms cited above, compare also Old Saxon himil (Middle Low German hemmel , German regional (Low German) Himmel ), probably < Old High German, transmitted by missionaries. Compare also Old Swedish himmel (Swedish himmel ), Old Danish himæl (Danish himmel ), either influenced by or borrowed < Middle High German and German. The word shows ablaut variation of the suffix in Old English: (early) hefaen , hefen (compare Old Saxon heƀan ) beside more common heofon , heofun (with u-mutation before u of the suffix). These two forms influenced each other, leading to analogical hefon , heofen , etc. (the latter may also, however, show weakening of the unstressed vowel). In Old English originally a strong masculine (heofon , genitive heofones ), but also a strong feminine (heofon , genitive heofone ) and a weak feminine (heofone ). The weak inflection is perhaps after eorðe earth n.1, with which the word frequently occurs in collocation (compare sense 3a). In Middle English forms both with and without final -e are found. (Where forms with final -e occur as the first element of compounds in early Middle English, it is difficult to determine whether this shows attributive use of a trisyllabic stem form or an inflected genitive form modifying the second word: compare e.g. heaven bliss n., heaven queen n., and Compounds 1). The normal modern English spelling with -ea- reflects a form with Middle English open syllable lengthening in a disyllabic word, whereas the normal modern English pronunciation with a short vowel reflects trisyllabic forms without this lengthening. For variation between a long vowel and a short vowel in the early modern period see E. J. Dobson Eng. Pronunc. 1500–1700 (ed. 2, 1968) II. §8. In biblical uses usually ultimately reflecting either (with reference to the Old Testament) Hebrew šāmayim or (with reference to the New Testament) Hellenistic Greek οὐρανός; usually transmitted via post-classical Latin caelum, coelum (Vulgate). Hebrew šāmayim is a dual form, which is sometimes rendered by a plural form in the Latin and Greek versions. Hence English translations often use a plural form (compare senses 1b and 5b), but the correspondence between the translations into Latin, Greek, and English is not consistent, suggesting that the usage became naturalized in the various languages. With the plurality of heavens compare also third heaven n. at third adj. and n. Additions, seventh heaven n., heaven of heavens n. at Phrases 1. With sense 8 compare classical Latin caelum stone vault (Vitruvius), Old French chiel stone vault (13th cent.), Middle French ciel canopy (14th cent.; French ciel), Middle Low German hemmel, Middle High German himel (German Himmel), all in sense ‘canopy’.
1. The expanse in which the sun, moon, and stars are seen, (esp. in earlier use) regarded as having the appearance of a vast vault arched over the earth; the sky, the firmament.In this and subsequent senses frequently without article, as a proper name.
a. In singular. Chiefly poetic after 17th cent.Cf. also cope of heaven n. at cope n.1 7a, eye of heaven at eye n.1 11a.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the universe > sky, heavens > [noun]
roofeOE
welkinc825
heaveneOE
heightOE
heavenOE
liftOE
loftOE
welkin1122
skies?a1289
firmamentc1290
skewa1300
spherea1300
skewsc1320
hemispherec1374
cope of heavenc1380
clouda1400
skya1425
elementc1485
axle-treea1522
scrowc1540
pole1572
horizona1577
vaulta1586
round?1593
the cope1596
pend1599
floor1600
canopy1604
cope1609
expansion1611
concameration1625
convex1627
concave1635
expansum1635
blue1647
the expanse1667
blue blanket1726
empyrean1727
carry1788
span1803
overhead1865
OE Beowulf (2008) 1571 Swa of hefene hadre scineð rodores candel.
OE Ælfric Old Eng. Hexateuch: Gen. (Claud.) i. 8 God geworhte ða fæstnysse,..& God het ða fæstnysse heofonan [L. caelum].
lOE Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Laud) anno 1106 On þa niht þe on morgen wæs Cena Domini..wæron gesewen twegen monan on þære heofonan toforan þam dæge.
c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1978) l. 13703 To-somne heo heolden swulc heouene [c1300 Otho heaue[n]e] wolde uallen.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 22694 (MED) Þan sal þar cum bath thoner and leuin, And drone al that es vnder heuin [a1400 Fairf. heiuin].
c1450 (?a1400) Wars Alexander (Ashm.) 84 Any hathill vnder heuen.
c1480 (a1400) St. Peter 89 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) I. 9 Þane lyftyt he his Ene to hewin.
1508 W. Dunbar Goldyn Targe (Chepman & Myllar) in Poems (1998) I. 186 A goun, Rich to behald..Off ewiry hew vnder the hevin.
1535 Bible (Coverdale) Eccl. iii. 1 All that is vnder the heauen.
1585 T. Washington tr. N. de Nicolay Nauigations Turkie i. vi. 4 The ordinaunce..made such a great noyse and thunderyng that it seemed the heaven would have fallen.
1656 T. Stanley Hist. Philos. II. v. 74 Stars and constellations; some fixed for the Ornament of Heaven.
1693 J. Dryden tr. Ovid Metamorphoses i, in Examen Poeticum 1 Heaven's high Canopy, that covers all.
1719 D. Defoe Farther Adventures Robinson Crusoe 306 The Sun, Moon, and Stars, or all the Host of Heaven.
1794 S. T. Coleridge in Morning Post 1 Dec. Still glows wide Heav'n with his distended blaze.
1860 J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps i. xv. 101 A serene heaven stretched overhead.
1883 Cent. Mag. Nov. 36/1 It blew all night long..after we were in bed, under a cloudless, star-set heaven.
1929 E. Blunden Near & Far 57 Dim stars like snowflakes are fluttering in heaven, Down the cloud-mountains by wind-torrents riven.
1991 T. Mo Redundancy of Courage (1992) xiv. 146 We'd see the vapour trails high in the cloudless blue heaven of the dry season.
b. In plural (now only with the). Originally esp. in biblical language; now the usual form.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the universe > sky, heavens > [noun]
roofeOE
welkinc825
heaveneOE
heightOE
heavenOE
liftOE
loftOE
welkin1122
skies?a1289
firmamentc1290
skewa1300
spherea1300
skewsc1320
hemispherec1374
cope of heavenc1380
clouda1400
skya1425
elementc1485
axle-treea1522
scrowc1540
pole1572
horizona1577
vaulta1586
round?1593
the cope1596
pend1599
floor1600
canopy1604
cope1609
expansion1611
concameration1625
convex1627
concave1635
expansum1635
blue1647
the expanse1667
blue blanket1726
empyrean1727
carry1788
span1803
overhead1865
eOE (Mercian) Vespasian Psalter (1965) viii. 4 Quoniam uidebo caelos opera digitorum tuorum, lunam et stellas : for ðon ic gesie heofenas werc fingra ðinra monan & steorran.
OE Ælfric Old Eng. Hexateuch: Gen. (Claud.) xv. 5 God lædde hyne þa ut, & het hyne locian to heofonum [L. caelum], & cwæð: Tell þas steorran, gyf ðu mæge.
c1175 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 10674 Heoffness wærenn oppnedd ta Till sannt iohaness ehne.
1382 J. Wyclif Psalms xviii[i]. 1 Heuenes [L. caeli] tellen out the glorie of God.
a1513 J. Irland Meroure of Wyssdome (1926) I. 57 The hevinnis, speris, elementis.
1535 Bible (Coverdale) Zech. viii. 12 The grounde shal geue hir increase, and the heauens shal geue their dew.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Comedy of Errors (1623) i. i. 66 What obscured light the heauens did grant. View more context for this quotation
1625 N. Carpenter Geogr. Delineated i. iv. 77 The Heauens..are carried in 24 houres from East to West.
1681 R. Baxter Compassionate Counsel Young-men vii. 66 For Atomes and Shadows are hardlier perceived with certainty, than the Earth, the Heavens, and Sun.
1717 J. Arbuckle Snuff 12 Those fair Stars, which in the Heavens we view.
1785 T. Dwight Conquest of Canäan ii. 37 O'er earth's far distant bounds The heavens wide-arching stretch'd.
1812 R. Woodhouse Elem. Treat. Astron. i. 1 If, on a clear night, we observe the Heavens, they will appear to undergo a continual change.
1891 Law Times 90 441/2 The Spectator..seemed to think the heavens must fall because the Press questioned the capacity of a judge.
1935 ‘A. Bridge’ Illyrian Spring iii. 34 The whole western half of the heavens was full of a golden glow, throwing a tawny lustre on the steely blue of the wind-ruffled waters.
1960 S. Becker tr. A. Schwarz-Bart Last of Just (1961) vi. 305 Everything under the skullcap of the heavens that called itself a democracy.
1981 E. R. Harrison Cosmology xii. 250 In an infinite..universe the stars would collectively outshine the Sun and flood the heavens with light far more intense than is observed.
1993 F. Cooper I believe in Angels (BNC) 119 She watched the heavens through the months when the sun swung its wide, never-setting circle.
c. In hyperbolical (often similative) use in descriptions of things of great height or points at a great distance apart, as at opposite ends of the horizon. Also figurative. Frequently in to heaven (also to the heavens), as high as heaven, and similar phrases. Cf. heaven-high adj., heaven-wide adv.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > extension in space > measurable spatial extent > largeness > [noun] > vast extent > that which is > typical example of
heavenOE
OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 1st Ser. (Royal) (1997) xxii. 358 Entas woldon aræran ane burh & ænne stypel swa heahne þæt his hrof astige oð heofon [a1225 Lamb. up to heofena].
OE Old Eng. Hexateuch: Deut. (Claud.) i. 28 Ðær is micel folc..& micla burga & oð heofun fæste [L. ad caelum usque munitae].
a1425 (a1382) Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Corpus Oxf.) (1850) Deut. i. 28 Greet citees, and in to heuene wallid [1611 walled vp to heauen; L. ad caelum usque munitae].
c1425 J. Lydgate Troyyes Bk. (Augustus A.iv) i. 475 (MED) For to enhaunce þin honour to þe heuene, Aboue þe pole and þe sterres seuene.
1548 M. Coverdale et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. I. i. xi. f. lxix Thou, o Capernaum..art in courage as high as heauen.
1576 A. Fleming tr. Cicero in Panoplie Epist. 147 Advauncing you with praises above hilles and mountaines, yea to the very heaven.
1604 E. Grimeston tr. St. Jerome in tr. J. de Acosta Nat. & Morall Hist. Indies i. i. 3 The naturall Philosopher by his contemplation pierceth to the height of heaven.
1731 A. Pope Epist. to Earl of Burlington 7 That..helps th' ambitious Hill the Heav'ns to scale.
1738 J. Wesley Coll. Psalms & Hymns (new ed.) ciii. iv As high as Heaven its arch extends, Above this little Spot of Clay.
1864 Ld. 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.
1932 T. E. Lawrence tr. Homer Odyssey (new ed.) xix. 259 High and wide as heaven your fame extends.
2004 Times (Nexis) 18 Sept. (Travel) 6 They had come out only for the day, yet they were piled to the heavens with enormous backpacks.
2.
a. The part of the atmosphere above and closest to the earth's surface, within which humans observe terrestrial weather systems, flight, and other activity in the sky local to earth. Chiefly with allusion to biblical use, esp. in set phrases, as birds of heaven, clouds of heaven, dew of heaven, rain of heaven, winds of heaven. Also occasionally in plural. Chiefly poetic in later use.With rain or dew, so called because falling (or perceived to fall) from the clouds.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the universe > sky, heavens > [noun] > upper atmosphere
heavenOE
welkinc1369
OE Old Eng. Hexateuch: Gen. (Claud.) xxvii. 28 Sylle þe God of heofones deawe [L. de rore coeli] & of eorðan fæstnysse [read fætnysse] & micelnysse hwætes & wines.
OE West Saxon Gospels: Mark (Corpus Cambr.) iv. 32 Þonne hit [sc. senepes sæd] asawen bið hit astihþ,..& hæfð swa mycele bogas þæt heofenes fugelas [L. aves caeli] eardian magon under his sceade.
OE Paris Psalter (1932) lxxvii. 26 And [halig drihten] awehte þa windas of heofenum, Auster ærest and þa Affricum.
a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(1)) (1850) Job xxxv. 11 The bestis of the erthe..the foulis of heuene [L. volucres caeli].
c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) (1850) Dan. vii. 2 Foure wyndis of heuen [L. quatuor venti caeli] fouȝten in the mydil see.
c1475 Proverbs (Rawl. D.328) in Mod. Philol. (1940) 38 120 (MED) Yf heua [n] falle meny lerkys schall be take.
1563 W. Fulke Goodle Gallerye Causes Meteors iv. f. 49v The water that commeth from heauen, in rayne.
1577 B. Googe tr. C. Heresbach Foure Bks. Husbandry i. f. 18 The disposition of the Heauens is a great matter, all Countreys haue not the weather and ayre alike.
1600 W. Shakespeare Merchant of Venice iv. i. 76 The mountaine of Pines..fretten with the gusts of heauen.
1663 G. Mackenzie Religio Stoici 43 Fellow-believers..fed the birds of heaven with the carcases of pious and reverend Church-men.
1733 A. Pope Ess. Man iii. 38 The Birds of Heav'n shall vindicate their Grain.
1776 W. J. Mickle tr. L. de Camoens Lusiad x. 453 Arzira's rock, where never rain Yet fell from heaven.
a1820 J. R. Drake Culprit Fay (1853) 38 When the vesper dew of heaven descends, Soft music breathes in many a melting tone.
1864 Ld. Tennyson Aylmer's Field in Enoch Arden, etc. 73 Tears, and the careless rain of heaven, mixt Upon their faces.
1870 Ld. Tennyson Window 146 Be merry in heaven, O larks, and far away.
1898 Contemp. Rev. Aug. 188 Honours, like the gentle rain from heaven, fell upon him unstrained.
1909 B. Carman Rough Rider & Other Poems 73 From the twelve winds of heaven their caravans Drew into Sikri as Akbar summoned them.
2005 Orillia (Ont.) Packet & Times (Nexis) 4 Dec. a4 Salata is assisted by a host of turtle doves and the little birds of heaven in the form of cheerful volunteers.
†b. This region regarded as the provider or source of the earth's weather; (hence) the climate. Obsolete (chiefly poetic in later use).
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > weather and the atmosphere > weather > [noun] > prevailing weather or climate
temperurea1387
heavena1398
temper1483
sunc1540
climate1548
sky1583
temperament1583
clime1597
meteorologicsc1600
climature1615
meteorology1684
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 181v In helþe of heuen Irlonde is a wel temperat cuntrey; þer is litil oþer noone passing heete oþer colde.
1581 G. Pettie tr. S. Guazzo Ciuile Conuersat. (1586) i. 26 Everie..Countrie, by the nature of the place, the climate of the Heaven, and the influence of the starres hath certaine vertues.
1596 J. Dalrymple tr. J. Leslie Hist. Scotl. (1888) I. 44 The clemencie of the hevin, and gentlenes of the wethir.
1603 J. Florio tr. M. de Montaigne Ess. i. xxxv. 112 Of those Nations that have no knowledge of clothes, some are found situated vnder the same heaven, and climate, or paralell, that we are in.
1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Pastorals x, in tr. Virgil Wks. 48 Not tho beneath the Thracian Clime we freeze; Or Italy's indulgent Heav'n forgo.
1740 tr. A. Banier Mythol. & Fables Ancients II. vii. 451 Wine is the Product of a Heaven, or of a temperate Climate.
1847 Ld. Tennyson Princess Prol. 2 Flowers of all heavens..Grew side by side.
3.
a. The region of space beyond the clouds or the visible sky. Chiefly in collocation with earth, denoting the whole universe. N.E.D. (1898) notes that this visible sky ‘is popularly or poetically viewed as the “floor”’ of this region.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the universe > space > [noun]
heavensOE
heavenOE
space1561
space1582
ether1587
the deep1598
depth1613
void1667
empyrean1879
OE Ælfric Old Eng. Hexateuch: Gen. (Claud.) i. 1 On angynne gesceop God heofonan & eorðan [L. caelum et terram].
a1325 (c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 40 In firme bigini[n]g, of nogt Was heuene and erðe samen wrogt.
c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) (1850) Mark xiii. 31 Heuene and erthe [L. caelum et terra] schal passe, forsothe my wordis schulen not passe.
1535 Bible (Coverdale) Jer. xxxii. 17 It is thou that hast made heauen and earth with thy greate power.
1590 H. Holland Treat. against Witchcraft iv. sig. G3 He perswades his witches, that he can drive heauen and earth together at his pleasure.
1600 W. Shakespeare Merchant of Venice v. i. 58 Looke how the floore of heauen is thick inlayed with pattens of bright gold. View more context for this quotation
?1612 J. Donne Lett. (1651) 46 Our nature is Meteorique, we respect (because we partake so) both earth and heaven.
1670 S. Gott Divine Hist. Genesis World iv. 32 Matter was..distinguished into several Heterogeneous Members, Celestial, and Terrestrial; or Heaven, and Earth.
1728 P. Aubin Life & Adventures Young Count Albertus iv. 71 It thunder'd and lighten'd as if Heaven and Earth were going to be destroyed.
1783 J. Beattie Diss. Moral & Crit. 611 They fill the imagination with the magnificent idea of the expanse of heaven and earth.
1823 F. Clissold Narr. Ascent Mont Blanc 23 A circle of thin haze..marked dimly the limits between heaven and earth.
1842 Ld. Tennyson St. Agnes' Eve in Poems (new ed.) II. iii All heaven bursts her starry floors.
1887 New Antigone (1888) II. xix. 97 Nothing in heaven or earth would have stayed her hand now.
1945 Times 12 June 5/4 Can Mr. Shannon state why in heaven or earth he should be free to return to his university at his own good time?
1950 J. Agee in Botteghe Oscure 6 370 They manifolded themselves upon the air between earth and heaven like falling leaves and falling snow.
1968 G. Jones Hist. Vikings iv. i. 319 Heaven and earth, the whole universe are consumed, and Earth sinks into the sea.
2002 D. Teresi Lost Discoveries (2003) iv. 172 Creation begins with the goddess Nammu, mother of the gods, who creates the heaven and earth all by herself.
b. In plural. With the. The region of space in which celestial objects move.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the universe > space > [noun]
heavensOE
heavenOE
space1561
space1582
ether1587
the deep1598
depth1613
void1667
empyrean1879
OE Blickling Homilies 91 On þæm æfteran dæge biþ gehyred mycel stefn on heofenum fyrdweorodes getrymnesse, & eorþe biþ onhrered of hire stowe, & heofon biþ open on sumum ende on þæm eastdæle.
1579 T. Lupton Thousand Notable Things iii. 50 Marke in what part of the Heauens, the good Planettes bee.
a1612 J. Harington Epigrams (1618) i. sig. B8v Some watry Planet in the heauens doth raigne.
1678 R. Cudworth tr. Maximus of Tyre in True Intellect. Syst. Universe i. iv. 517 Lifted up far above the Starry Heavens.
1715 tr. D. Gregory Elements Astron. I. i. §44. 95 The Planets and Comets move in the Heavens very freely.
1782 B. Hancock Doctr. Eclipses xii Perigee, a point in the Heavens where a planet is at its nearest distance from the earth.
1838 J. P. Nichol (title) Views of the architecture of the heavens.
1860 J. Ruskin Mod. Painters V. 152 The Heavens, for the great vault or void, with all its planets, and stars, and ceaseless march of orbs innumerable.
1906 Astrophysical Jrnl. 23 248 Prevailing opinion..admits the presence in the heavens of at least a few stars of extraordinary intrinsic brilliancy.
1930 Nature Mag. Mar. 179/2 The moon's path lies in that belt of the heavens known as the zodiac.
1982 C. Rose Astrol. Counselling viii. 104 Whereas a progression is the movement of a planet during the course of life,..a transit is the passage of a planet in the heavens at the current time over a planetary position at birth.
†c. A model showing the motions of the planets; an orrery. Obsolete.Cf. also a figure of heaven (also the heavens) at figure n. 14.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the universe > cosmology > science of observation > astronomical instruments > representational device > [noun] > mechanical > orrery
heaven1600
orrery1713
planetarium1734
transitarium1761
tellurion1763
eidouraniona1800
1600 T. Nashe Summers Last Will in Wks. (1885) VI. 88 Euery man cannot, with Archimedes, make a heauen of brasse.
1605 R. Verstegan Restit. Decayed Intelligence ii. 52 The heauen of siluer, which..was sent vnto Soliman the great Turck, wherein all the planets had their seuerall courses.
1727 tr. G. Panciroli Hist. Many Memorable Things II. x. 333 He put us in mind of Archimedes his Invention, who made an Heaven of Brass, representing the Planets, and all the Movements of the natural Clock-work of the supernal Orbs.
4. In early cosmography: each of the ‘spheres’ or spherical shells, lying above or outside each other, into which astronomers and cosmographers formerly divided the realms of space around the earth; sometimes also in less specific contexts in early use. Also figurative. Now historical.The heavens 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 the method of computation from seven to eleven. Cf. also crystalline heaven at crystalline adj. 1.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the universe > celestial sphere > zone of celestial sphere > sphere of ancient astronomy > [noun]
liftOE
heavenOE
wheelc1175
welkina1325
spherec1374
elementc1384
firmamentc1386
roundnessa1398
movablec1400
orbc1449
concavity1483
concameration1625
subcelestial1644
orbit1727
OE Homily: Apocalypse of Thomas (Corpus Cambr. 41) in R. Willard Two Apocrypha in Old Eng. Homilies (1935) 4 Siofon heofonas sindon in gewritum leornode, þæt is, se lyftlica heofon, and se oferlyftlica, and se fyrenan [read fyrena] heofon, and se stronga heofon, þone we rodor hatað, and se egeslica heofon, and engla heofon, and heofon þære halgan ðrinnisse.
lOE King Ælfred tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. (Bodl.) xxxvi. 105 Siððon þu þonne forð ofer þone [sc. Saturn] bist aferod, þonne bist þu bufan þam swiftan rodore, & lætst þonne behindan þe þone hehstan heofon [L. Polum relinquat extimum].
c1175 ( Homily (Bodl. 343) in S. Irvine Old Eng. Homilies (1993) 173 Ealle men..sceolen beon ahofene up ofer þysne luftlice heofen..comende to þam dome toȝeane ure Drihten.
a1325 (c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 110 Al middelerd ðer-inne is loken..And watres ðor a-buuen; And ouer ðat..An oðer heuene ful o blis.
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) I. viii. ii. 447 Heuenes beþ seuene, inempnede in þis manere: aereum, ethereum, olimp[i]um, igneum, firmamentum, aqueum, empireum celum.
a1425 (a1400) Prick of Conscience (Galba & Harl.) (1863) 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.
a1500 (?a1425) tr. Secreta Secret. (Lamb.) 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 elemen[t]es, þat er fyre, Eyre, water, and erthe. þe Erthe þanne ys yn þe myddyl stede of þe oþer element[t]es.
1559 W. Cuningham Cosmogr. Glasse 210 Whatsoever is conteined within the circuit of the heaven of the Mone.
1594 T. Blundeville Exercises i. iii. f. 136 In ascending orderly vpwardes..The first is the Spheare of the Moone..The fourth the Spheare of the Sunne..The seuenth the Spheare of Saturne, The eight the Spheare of the fixed Starres, commonly called the firmament. The ninth is called the second moueable or Christall heauen, The tenth is called the first moueable, and the eleuenth is called the Emperiall heauen, where God and his Angels are said to dwell.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Henry V (1623) Prol. 2 O For a Muse of Fire, that would ascend The brightest Heauen of Inuention. View more context for this quotation
1754 J. Hill Urania at Ptolemaic System Each of these [planets] they placed in a particular sphere, which they called by its name, the sphere, or heaven, of Mercury, of Mars, of Saturn, and the rest.
1783 J. Hoole tr. L. Ariosto Orlando Furioso I. xiii. (Brewer) Sometimes she deemed that Mars had from above Left his fifth heaven, the powers of men to prove.
1833 J. E. Bethune Galileo in Lives Eminent Persons (Soc. Diffusion Usef. Knowl.) 12/1 To each planet belonged several concentric spheres or heavens, casing each other like the coats of an onion.
1842 Ld. Tennyson Mariana in South (rev. ed.) viii, in Poems (new ed.) I. 92 Deepening thro' the silent spheres, Heaven over Heaven rose the night.
1953 Isis 4 275 Luther did not share the views of his Erfurt teachers, namely in the conception of the eleven or twelve heavens (spheres).
2005 L. Kassell Med. & Magic in Elizabethan London i. ii. 46 For most Renaissance astronomers the cosmos was divided into ten celestial crystalline spheres or heavens (some authors argued that there were nine).
5. Frequently with capital initial.
a. In the Christian tradition (and hence more widely): the abode of God and of the angels and persons who enjoy God's presence, traditionally regarded as being beyond the sky; the final abode of the redeemed after their life on earth; a state or condition of being or living with God after death; everlasting life. Opposed to hell.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > heaven > [noun]
bliss971
heavenOE
paradiseOE
towera1240
seatc1275
heavenwarda1300
Abraham's bosomc1300
tabernaclea1340
wonea1350
sanctuary1382
pasturec1384
firmament1388
sky?1518
Canaan1548
welkin1559
happy land1562
sphere?1592
heavenwards1614
afterworld1615
patria1707
god-home1848
overworld1858
the invisible1868
OE Cynewulf Elene 1228 Sie þara manna gehwam behliden helle duru, heofones ontyned, ece geopenad engla rice, dream unhwilen.
OE West Saxon Gospels: Luke (Corpus Cambr.) xi. 2 Ure fæder, þu ðe on heofone eart, si þin nama gehalgod.
c1175 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 3263 To brukenn heffness blisse.
a1225 (?OE) MS Lamb. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1868) 1st Ser. 45 Grið on eorðe and grið on hefene.
a1225 (?OE) MS Lamb. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1868) 1st Ser. 79 Engles in houene.
c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1978) l. 10699 Swulc þu woldest to hæuene, nu þu scalt to hælle.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 24783 He suar be þe king of heuen.
c1480 (a1400) St. Peter 16 in W. M. Metcalfe Legends Saints Sc. Dial. (1896) I. 7 To þe I gyff þe keys of hewyne.
1488 (c1478) Hary Actis & Deidis Schir William Wallace (Adv.) (1968–9) xii. l. 1236 Scotland he fred and brocht it off thrillage; And now in hewin he has his heretage.
1544 R. Tracy Supplycacion to Kynge Henry VIII sig. C Teache the people to gett heuen with fastynge.
1597 W. Shakespeare Richard II i. i. 38 For what I speake My body shall make good vpon this earth, Or my diuine soule answer it in heauen . View more context for this quotation
1622 F. Bacon Hist. Raigne Henry VII 113 Stirring both Heauen and Hell to do him mischiefe.
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost i. 263 Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav'n . View more context for this quotation
1688 H. Wharton Enthusiasm Church of Rome 33 Don Quixot fancied that all Knight-Errants went to Heaven, or at least to Purgatory.
1719 D. Defoe Farther Adventures Robinson Crusoe 165 There is no God but him; he lives for ever in Heaven.
1771 H. Mackenzie Man of Feeling 63 Your Billy is in Heaven.
1810 E. D. Clarke Trav. Var. Countries I. ix. 156 We believe no soul can go to heaven without it.
1855 R. Browning Epist. 141 Heaven opened to a soul while yet on earth, Earth forced on a soul's use while seeing heaven.
1879 C. Rossetti Seek & Find 22 Heaven is the presence of God: the presence of God, then, is heaven.
1909 Catholic Encycl. V. 583/2 The third and last question has to do with the multilocation of Christ in heaven and upon thousands of altars throughout the world.
1954 Life 19 Apr. 26/1 The Christian hope is nothing less than the hope of heaven, and this hope is central to Christian faith.
1990 Christian Herald 9 June 5/3 How can you know you will go to be with God in heaven when you die?
b. Also in plural. Now usually with the.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > heaven > [noun] > the heavens
heavenOE
heightOE
sky1557
arch1737
OE (Northumbrian) Lindisf. Gospels: Matt. vi. 9 Pater noster qui es in caelis : fader urer ðu arð uel ðu bist in heofnum uel in heofnas.
OE West Saxon Gospels: Matt. (Corpus Cambr.) xviii. 18 Swa hwylce swa ge gebindað ofer eorþan þa beoþ gebundene on heofonum [L. in caelo] & swa hwylce swa ge ofer eorþan unbindaþ þa beoþ on heofonum unbundene.
c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Royal) Apoc. xii. 12 Therefore glade ȝe, heuens [L. caeli], and ȝe that dwellen in hem.
?c1430 (c1400) Rule St. Francis (Corpus Cambr.) in F. D. Matthew Eng. Wks. Wyclif (1880) 42 Heiris & kyngis of þe kyngdom of heuenys.
1548 N. Udall et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. I. Acts 16 a He..sitteth and reigneth in high heauens aboue.
1596 J. Dalrymple tr. J. Leslie Hist. Scotl. (1895) II. 386 Leiueng the course of this lyfe tha pas to the heuinis.
1611 Bible (King James) Heb. iv. 14 Wee haue a great high Priest, that is passed into the heauens . View more context for this quotation
1694 J. Clark tr. F. M. van Helmont Seder Olam 128 Whether it were not better for them [sc. the Saints], and more desirable to them to remain with God in the Heavens.
1704 C. Darby Psalms cxv. 190 Our God is in the heavens high, And what he wills can do.
1893 H. D. Rawnsley Valete 133 Christ in the heavens has called you to His side.
1906 Washington Post 30 July 12/4 Christ's coming from the heavens has entered into the life of humanity as the Founder of the world to come.
1988 Jrnl. Sci. Stud. Relig. 27 180 Believers are raptured to join Christ in the Heavens.
c. The abode of any of various non-Christian gods, (in early use) esp. the gods of classical mythology. Also in plural.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > heaven > [noun] > non-Christian
heaveneOE
other worldOE
paradise?a1425
pantheon?1545
Olympus1582
Hesperidesa1592
tian1613
afterworld1615
Swarga1734
goddery1811
Pure Land1819
Reinga1820
Tir-na-nog1889
Jodo1901
sand-hill1949
eOE King Ælfred tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. (Otho) xxxv. 98 [Ðu ge]herdest oft reccan..þætte Iob Saturnes [sunu sceo]lde bion se hehsta god of[er ealle oðre] godu, & he sceolde bion þæs heo[fenes] sunu, & sceolde ricsian on heo[fenum].
a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(1)) (1850) Jer. vii. 18 Thei make sweete cakis to the quen of heuene [sc. Astarte; L. reginae caeli].
c1450 (c1380) G. Chaucer House of Fame 164 Venus..Doun fro the heven gan descende.
c1540 (?a1400) Gest Historiale Destr. Troy (2002) f. 127v I may not hate hym by heuyn þat me in hert tas.
1594 W. Shakespeare Titus Andronicus iv. iii. 41 With Ioue in heauen, or some where else. View more context for this quotation
1636 T. Heywood Loves Maistresse iii. i. sig. H2 Shee..would murder Cupid, teare even Iove from heaven.
1693 J. Dryden tr. Ovid Metamorphoses i, in Examen Poeticum 13 Against beleaguer'd Heav'n, the Gyants move.
1715 A. Pope in tr. Homer Iliad I. i. Observ. 77 The Rebellion of the Gods, the Precipitation of Vulcan from Heaven.
1791 W. Cowper tr. Homer Iliad in Iliad & Odyssey I. xi. 60 Aurora, now on the Olympian height Proclaiming, stood new day to all in heaven.
1832 C. Coleman Mythol. Hindus xiii. 220 Like the Buddhas, they [sc. the Jains] believe that there is a plurality of heavens and hells.
1841 M. Elphinstone Hist. India I. ii. iv. 169 The heaven of Siva is in the midst of the eternal snows and glaciers of Keilás, one of the highest and deepest groups of the stupendous summits of Hémaláya.
1885 R. Bridges Eros & Psyche xii. xxiii. 153 And Zeus..outbanned From heaven whoever should that word miscall.
1932 T. E. Lawrence tr. Homer Odyssey (new ed.) xxiv. 325 In heaven Athene appealed to Zeus, son of Cronos.
1997 J. Bowker World Relig. 46/1 (caption) Before his birth, Mahavira resided in the Pushpottara heaven.
2005 Geographical Sept. 48/2 The elephant became the steed of Indra, the Hindu god of the heavens.
d. Originally (in Jewish theology): each of seven celestial regions. In later use also (in Islamic theology): each of seven stages of blessed life after death. Cf. heaven of heavens n. at Phrases 1, seventh heaven n.This division was probably of Mesopotamian or Persian origin and founded on astronomical theories (cf. sense 4). In Jewish theology it was first expounded in the Talmud ( Hagigah 12b).
ΚΠ
OE Homily (Corpus Cambr. 162) in K. G. Schaefer Five Old Eng. Homilies (Ph.D. diss., Columbia Univ.) (1972) 175 Ærest, æt fruman, he geworhte..ealle gesceafta, & þa seofon heofonas mid nigon engla endebyrdnyssum.
c1450 (?a1400) Wars Alexander (Ashm.) l. 1528 (MED) It semyd as þe cite to se ane of þe seuyn heuyns.
1574 A. Gilby tr. Test. Twelue Patriarches f. 17v Therfore harken as touching the seuen Heauens.
1649 A. Ross Life Mahomet in tr. Alcoran 406 As he was returning, in the fourth Heaven, Moses advised him to goe back to God.
1734 G. Sale tr. Koran xxiii. 282 And we have created over you seven heavens.
1787 R. Bage Fair Syrian II. 251 An Italian was viewing..the prophet mounted on Al bourak, and just entering the third of the seven heavens.
1794 R. McCulloch Lect. Prophecies Isaiah II. xiv. 60 These stars shined with considerable splendor in the mystical Jewish heavens.
1841 E. W. Lane tr. Thousand & One Nights I. 20 According to the common opinion of the Arabs there are seven Heavens, one above another.
1858 W. Muir Life Mahomet II. 219 From Jerusalem he seemed to mount upwards, and ascend from one Heaven to another.
1910 Amer. Jrnl. Theol. 14 74 In the second and third chapters of the Testament of Levi we find a description of the seven heavens.
1936 H. P. Whitlock Story of Gems ix. 116 The sixth of the seven Moslem heavens is said to be composed of yellow jacinth.
1989 Conc. Encycl. Islam 357/2 At each heaven he is opposed and must struggle to gain entry.
2005 D. Meyer Chosen App. B. 519 The Second Heaven, known as Raquia, is the second largest Heaven. Ruled by Zachariel and Raphael, it is the only Heaven to have two equal princes.
e. figurative. Now rare.
ΚΠ
a1631 J. Donne Poems (1633) 174 That faire blessed Mother-maid..Whose wombe was a strange heav'n, for there God cloath'd himselfe, and grew.
a1631 J. Donne Poems (1633) 220 Minde be the heaven, where love doth sit.
1810 J. Montgomery W. Indies iii. 23 In the clear heaven of her delightful eye, An angel-guard of loves and graces lie.
1842 B. F. Barrett Course Lect. Doctr. New Jerusalem Church i. 17 He formed a spacious and solid earth, on which the ladder leading to the heaven of his mind could firmly rest, and the angels of God—the celestial principles of truth and love—could descend as well as ascend.
1904 Atlantic Monthly May 675 Lifted then She lay within the heaven of his heart, Suffused with all the godship of his love.
1953 H. B. Stein Rod of Mercury xv. 52 Glastonbury the city of glass, the heaven of King Arthur.
f. 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. Usually with modifying word designating the type of animal, as dog heaven, cat heaven, etc.
ΚΠ
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.
g. 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.
ΚΠ
1972 M. 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.
6.
a. A place likened or compared to heaven; a place of supreme bliss; frequently in heaven (up)on earth. Cf. heaven of heavens n. at Phrases 1, seventh heaven n. 2, third heaven n. at third adj. and n. Additions.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > perception or cognition > faculty of imagination > faculty of conceiving ideals > ideal place > [noun]
heaveneOE
land of behesta1200
Cockaigne?c1335
Fortunate Islands?a1475
eutopia1553
utopia1601
horny gate (also port)1605
nonsucha1618
Americaa1631
El Dorado1788
other world1804
Cockneyland1817
cloud-cuckoo-land1824
Fiddler's Green1825
dreamland1832
Neverland1892
never-never land1900
Big Rock Candy Mountain1917
brave new world1933
Xanadu1948
Disneyland1956
ecotopia1975
the mind > emotion > pleasure > happiness > supreme or heavenly happiness > [noun] > place of supreme happiness
heaveneOE
Edena1225
paradise?a1300
Garden of Eden1535
eutopia1553
happy land1562
Arcady1590
Hesperidesa1592
Elysiuma1616
God's own country1807
lotusland1856
Adamless Eden1876
summerland1895
Shangri-La1941
eOE King Ælfred tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. (Otho) xi .24 Ic wat ðæt monegum men þuhte þæt he wære to hefonum [L. coelo] ahæfen gif he ænigne dæl hæfde þara þinra gesælða þe þu nu giet hæfst.
c1400 (c1378) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Laud 581) (1869) B. x. 300 (MED) If heuene be on þis erthe..It is in cloistere or in scole.
c1405 (c1395) G. Chaucer Merchant's Tale (Hengwrt) (1978) l. 403 I shal han myn heuene in erthe heere.
1546 J. Heywood Dialogue Prouerbes Eng. Tongue i. ix. sig. E v They that be in hell, wene there is none other heuen.
1600 W. Shakespeare Midsummer Night's Dream ii. i. 243 Ile follow thee and make a heauen of hell. View more context for this quotation
1660 Speech House of Commons 14 Nov. in W. Cobbett Parl. Hist. (1808) IV. 145 England, that was formerly the heaven, would be now the hell for women.
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost i. 255 The mind is its own place, and in it self Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n. View more context for this quotation
1725 W. Broome in A. Pope et al. tr. Homer Odyssey II. vi. 22 A heav'n of charms divine Nausicaa lay.
1782 F. Burney Cecilia I. iii. iv. 51 Such a shop as that..would be quite a heaven upon earth to me.
1810 W. Scott Lady of Lake ii. 55 Ere Douglasses, to ruin driven, Were exiled from their native heaven.
1831 T. Carlyle Niebelungenlied in Crit. & Misc. Ess. (1872) III. 142 Here for eleven days..there is a true heaven-on-earth.
1898 Argosy June 528 I verily believe thinking himself in heaven for the time being.
1940 H. G. Wells Babes in Darkling Wood ii. iii. 198 They thought strikes and hunger marches the quintessence of politics and Soviet Russia heaven on earth.
1967 H. W. Sutherland Magnie vii. 94 They were queer, the Shelties, came from nothing... England was heaven to them.
2000 Guardian 17 Mar. ii. 8/1 A designer emporium that sells nothing but perfume? Mais oui: behind the plain-looking Paris shopfront on the right lies heaven for scentophiles.
b. A state of supreme bliss; an immensely enjoyable experience. In later use frequently with infinitive phrase.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > pleasure > happiness > supreme or heavenly happiness > [noun]
blissc1175
Edena1225
heaven bliss?c1225
joyc1275
blessedheada1300
blissfulheada1340
third heavenc1384
paradisec1395
benisona1400
blessednessa1400
heavena1413
jocundnessc1426
everlastingness1434
jocundityc1450
beatitudea1492
beatification1502
blessedfulness1526
beautitude1578
Elysiuma1616
suavitya1617
seventh heaven1786
heaven of heavens1885
a1413 (c1385) G. Chaucer Troilus & Criseyde (Pierpont Morgan) (1881) ii. l. 826 It an heuene was hire voys to here.
1550 J. Heywood Dialogue Prouerbes Eng. Tongue (new ed.) ii. vii. sig. E viii Husbandes are in heauen..whose wiues scold not.
1596 E. Spenser Hymne in Honour of Love 244 What heauens of ioy, then to himselfe he faynes.
1678 S. Butler Hudibras: Third Pt. iii. i. 54 And, like an Anchorite, gives over This World, for th' Heaven of a Lover?
1696 E. S. Rowe Poems Several Occasions 52 Oh 'tis a Heaven of Ioy to think him Mine.
1792 S. Rogers Pleasures Mem. i. 59 The clock..That faithful monitor, 'twas heaven to hear, When soft it spoke a promised pleasure near.
1809 W. Wordsworth in Friend 26 Oct. 163 Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven!
1887 G. Meredith Ballads & Poems 109 Heaven! 'tis heaven to plump her life.
1900 W. Delaforce Life & Experiences Ex-convict Port Macquarie 35 When a man had finished his sentence in the chain gang, he was sentenced to a road party, and it was Heaven to the chain gang.
1956 N. Coward Diary 6 May (2000) 319 It will be heaven to have time to read and write and paint and not have to gird my loins for a while.
2000 M. Beaumont e 108 And yes, lunch would be heaven. I'll have my Girl Friday speak to yours.
c. 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.
ΚΠ
1879 J. 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.
d. 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.
ΚΠ
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.
7. Frequently with capital initial. Cf. Phrases 3.
a. The power or majesty of heaven, esp. as a force controlling human life or fate; God, Providence.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > Christian God > [noun]
the Most HigheOE
highesteOE
alwaldendOE
drightinOE
godOE
King of kingsOE
heavenOE
lordOE
sky?1518
gossea1556
beingc1600
deity1647
Master of the Universe1765
Morimo1824
Molimo1861
Gawd1877
big guy1925
Modimo1958
the world > the supernatural > deity > heaven > [noun] > power or majesty of
heavenOE
the world > the supernatural > deity > Christian God > [noun] > as provident
householder?1387
providence1602
heaven1607
OE West Saxon Gospels: Luke (Corpus Cambr.) xv. 21 Fæder, ic syngude on heofon [L. in caelum], & beforan ðe.
a1425 (c1395) Bible (Wycliffite, L.V.) (Royal) (1850) Dan. iv. 23 Aftir that thou knowist that the power is of heuene [L. potestatem esse caelestem].
1594 T. Kyd tr. R. Garnier Cornelia ii. sig. D What e're the massie Earth hath fraight..Vpon the will of Heauen doth waite.
1607 M. Drayton Legend Cromwel 18 Enuie..Affecting the supremacie of heauen.
1640 tr. G. S. du Verdier Love & Armes Greeke Princes i. 3 The heaven takes care of your quiet.
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost i. 212 The will And high permission of all-ruling Heaven . View more context for this quotation
1692 tr. C. de Saint-Évremond Misc. Ess. 347 Sometimes Heaven ordains, and Nature makes an Opposition.
1721 P. Aubin Strange Adventures Count de Vinevil ix. 75 This is my unfortunate History, I pray Heaven it may end more happily.
1793 H. Boyd Rivals in Poems ii. iv. 270 Heaven commands thine arm To lift the sure-destroying sword!
1819 P. B. Shelley Cenci v. iv. 100 Sweet Heaven, forgive weak thoughts!
1886 Pall Mall Gaz. 8 May 1/1 Executing the just judgment of offended Heaven upon cattle-houghers, traitors, and assassins.
1962 D. Walcott In Green Night 32 To Anglo Catholic prayers Heaven will be pervious.
1992 W. S. Wilson tr. E. Yoshikawa Taiko ii. 186 There's nothing we can do but pray to heaven for good luck.
b. Also in plural.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > [noun]
godeOE
deityc1374
higher powerc1384
princec1384
divinityc1386
governorc1400
powerc1425
numen1495
fear1535
heaven1554
godheada1586
godhood1586
landlorda1635
supreme1643
supercelestial1652
supernal1661
universality1681
father1820
unspeakable1843
Molimo1861
Mlimo1897
superperson1907
somebody up there1972
sky fairy1997
1554 J. Knox Faythfull Admon. sig. B.ii v Nor yet could the heauens without shame behold the craft, the disceit, the violence and wrong that openly was wrought.
1579 G. Harvey Let.-bk. (1884) 62 I hope in the heavens my chin will on day be so favorable and bountifull unto me.
a1593 C. Marlowe Massacre at Paris (c1600) sig. A6v The heauens forbid your highnes such mishap.
1611 Bible (King James) Dan. iv. 26 After that thou shalt haue knowen that the heauens doe rule. View more context for this quotation
1640 tr. G. S. du Verdier Love & Armes Greeke Princes i. 174 The heavens..made me yesterday seek to save you.
1722 T. Cooke Marlborough ii. 17 The Heavens smile to see The grand Preserver of our Liberty.
1759 A. Murphy Orphan of China iii. 40 Oh! look down, ye heavens! Look down propitious!
1833 A. Domett Poems 165 The Heavens look down with equal love Upon the sparrow of the grove And on the King-Bird, far above.
1859 Ld. Tennyson Enid in Idylls of King 48 She was ever praying the sweet heavens To save her dear lord whole from any wound.
1999 Angling Times 16 June 24/3 Styls..drive normally sane anglers to pull their hair out by the roots, and scream ungodly messages to the Heavens.
8. A ceiling, a canopy; spec. the covering over a stage (now historical). Now rare.In 19th cent. poetic and directly figurative from sense 1.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > a building > furniture and fittings > covers or hangings > [noun] > hangings > canopy > specific
heaveneOE
dia1377
penthouse1517
hoopsc1520
cloth of estate, state1523
baldachin1645
dais1863
eOE Cleopatra Gloss. in W. G. Stryker Lat.-Old Eng. Gloss. in MS Cotton Cleopatra A.III (Ph.D. diss., Stanford Univ.) (1951) 268 Lacunar, hushefen uel heofen, hrof.
1449–50 in A. F. Johnston & M. Rogerson Rec. Early Eng. Drama: York (1979) I. 78 Item for ij ȝerdes & dimidium of lynen cloth to hevyn of oure pageant xv.d.
1486 in Surtees Misc. (1888) 54 In the entre..shalbe craftely conceyvid a place in maner of a heven;..under the heven shalbe a world desolaite.
1578 T. Twyne tr. L. Daneau Wonderfull Woorkmanship of World xiii. f. 29 Wee French men call all such couerings, heauen, and in our countrey language, vn ciell.
1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Volerie,..a place ouer a stage which we call the Heauen.
1612 T. Heywood Apol. for Actors ii. D ij b The couerings of the stage, which wee call the heauens..were Geometrically supported by a Giant-like Atlas.
1656 A. Cowley Davideis ii. 53 in Poems O're his head A well-wrought Heav'en of silk and gold was spread.
1820 P. B. Shelley Prometheus Unbound iii. iii. 109 Bright golden globes Of fruit, suspended in their own green heaven.
a1822 P. B. Shelley Lady of South in Poet. Wks. (1904) 738 Under a heaven of cedar boughs.
1875 Lippincott's Monthly Mag. Feb. 216 Sky and leafage interlace So close the heaven of blue is seen Inwoven with a heaven of green.
1988 C. W. R. D. Moseley Shakespeare's Hist. Plays iii. 31 From the tiring-house façade, at what must have been a high level, projected a canopy..often called the ‘heavens’, and there is much evidence to suggest that its underside was painted elaborately with the signs of the zodiac and the circles of the planets.
†9. [ < sense 6.] A quintessence. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > alchemy > other alchemical substances or theories > [noun] > fifth essence
quintessencec1460
heavena1475
fifth substance1561
a1475 Bk. Quinte Essence (1889) 2 Philosophoris clepen þe purest substaunce of manye corruptible þingis elementid, ‘quinta essencia,’ þat is to seie, ‘mannys heuene’.
a1475 Bk. Quinte Essence (1889) 13 How þat ȝe may wiþ oure heuene drawe out euery 5 essencia from alle þingis aforeseid.

Phrases

P1.
heaven of heavens n. (also heaven of heaven, heavens of heavens) the most exalted level of heaven; (figurative) a place of supreme bliss; cf. seventh heaven n. [Compare post-classical Latin caelum caeli , lit. ‘heaven of heaven’, caeli caelorum , lit. ‘heavens of heavens’ (both Vulgate), Hellenistic Greek οὐρανὸς οὐρανοῦ , lit. ‘heaven of heaven’ (1st cent. b.c. or a.d.), οὐρανὸς οὐρανῶν , lit. ‘heaven of heavens’, οὐρανοὶ οὐρανῶν , lit. ‘heavens of heavens’ (both 4th-5th cent.), Hebrew šěmē haššāmayim the highest heaven, lit. ‘heaven of the heavens’ (Old Testament; in the Talmud referring to the same concept as seventh heaven n.; compare sense 5d), Arabic samā’ al-samāwāt the highest heaven, lit. ‘heaven of the heavens’.]
ΘΚΠ
the mind > emotion > pleasure > happiness > supreme or heavenly happiness > [noun]
blissc1175
Edena1225
heaven bliss?c1225
joyc1275
blessedheada1300
blissfulheada1340
third heavenc1384
paradisec1395
benisona1400
blessednessa1400
heavena1413
jocundnessc1426
everlastingness1434
jocundityc1450
beatitudea1492
beatification1502
blessedfulness1526
beautitude1578
Elysiuma1616
suavitya1617
seventh heaven1786
heaven of heavens1885
OE Old Eng. Hexateuch: Deut. (Claud.) x. 14 Heofon & heafuna heofun [L. caelum..et caelum caeli] & eorðe & ealle þa þing þe sind on him sind Drihtnes.
a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(1)) (1850) Psalms cxiii. 16 The heuene of heuene [a1425 MS. S. heuenys; L. caelum caeli] to the Lord; the erthe forsothe he ȝaf to the sones of men.
1560 Bible (Geneva) Psalms cxlviii. 4 Praise ye him heauens of heauens [L. caeli caelorum], and waters, that be aboue the heauens.
1587 Sir P. Sidney & A. Golding tr. P. de Mornay Trewnesse Christian Relig. iii. 44 Calling him the euerlasting Father, the Walker vpon the Heauen of Heauens.
1611 Bible (King James) 1 Kings viii. 27 The heauen and heauen of heauens cannot conteine Thee. View more context for this quotation
1684 P. Ker Flosculum Poeticum 34 To Heaven of Heavens I will thee bring; Thou shalt be Subject, I'll be King.
1688 M. Prior Ode Exod. iii. 14 106 The Heaven of Heavens, the high abode, Where Moses places his mysterious God.
1709 J. Dennis Appius & Virginia iii. i. 35 I'll seize th'enchanting Joy,And to the Heaven of Heavens my Raptures raise.
1800 G. Bennet Olam Haneshamoth xvii. 325 The words of St. Paul establish an express distinction between this and the heaven of heavens to which he ascended.
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.
1925 V. Lindsay Coll. Poems ix. 381 If there is vengeance in the Heaven of Heavens, What punishment could Heaven devise for these.
1997 P. Helm Faith & Understanding iv. 97 It is by contemplating the divine nature that the heaven of heavens is saved from change.
P2. the heavens open: see open v. 5c.
P3. In asseverations, oaths, etc. Cf. god n. and int. Phrases 1 – Phrases 4.
a. by heaven (also heavens): expressing asseveration or (in weaker use simply) exclamation. Formerly also †fore (also before, on, through) heaven. Cf. by prep. 2.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > malediction > oaths > [interjection] > religious oaths (referring to God) > (originally) with reference to heaven
by heaven (also heavens)c1540
by the welkin1602
for heaven's sake1631
OE West Saxon Gospels: Matt. (Corpus Cambr.) xxiii. 22 Seðe swerað on heofonan [OE Lindisf. on heofne, OE Rushw. be heofune; L. in caelo], he sweryð on Godes þrymsetle & on þam þe ofyr þæt sitt.]
c1540 (?a1400) Destr. Troy 8313 I may not hate hym, by heuyn, þat me in hert tes.
1588 A. Munday tr. Palmerin D'Oliua i. iii. f. 6v By Heauen (sweete Ladie) either will I die this day, or remooue the greefe that seemeth so neere to touche you.
1612 B. Jonson Alchemist i. i. sig. B3 Not I, by heauen . View more context for this quotation
1612 B. Jonson Alchemist i. ii. sig. B4 Fore heau'n, I scarse can thinke you are my friend. View more context for this quotation
1652 R. Brome Joviall Crew ii. sig. E 'Fore Heaven I think they are in earnest.
1671 A. Behn Amorous Prince iv. v. 63 By Heaven 'twas perfect truth.
1716 J. Addison tr. Ovid Met. in Wks. (1753) I. 176 By heav'n the story's true.
1752 C. Lennox Female Quixote II. viii. iii. 187 ‘By Heavens!’ cried Glanville..‘there's no bearing this’.
c1812 R. B. Sheridan Let. (1966) III. 141 By Heaven I can do nothing with the enclosed.
1859 Ld. Tennyson Merlin & Vivien 341 in Idylls of King By Heaven that hears, I tell you the clean truth.
1887 A. C. Gunter Mr. Barnes (1888) xviii. 135 He commenced to strut and hector about..and cry, By Heavens.
1904 ‘O. Henry’ Cabbages & Kings xiv. 226 By heavens! that dictator chap is a corker! He's a dictator clear down to his finger-ends.
1968 D. Moraes My Son's Father vi. 108 She is all agog, by heavens!
1997 T. Pynchon Mason & Dixon 367 By Heaven, a Wilkesite!
b. Chiefly in plural. In exclamations expressing surprise, horror, excitement, etc. Frequently with intensifying adjective, as good heavens, gracious heavens, great heavens, etc. merciful heavens: see merciful adj. 1; please heaven: see please v. 3b(b); thank heaven: see thank v. 3g. In later use often in various extended forms, as Heaven and earth, Heavens above, Heavens alive, Heavens to Betsy (originally and chiefly U.S.), etc. [The origin of the exclamation Heavens to Betsy is unknown; perhaps compare Betsy n.]
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > expectation > surprise, unexpectedness > exclamation of surprise [interjection]
whatOE
well, wellOE
avoyc1300
ouc1300
ay1340
lorda1393
ahaa1400
hillaa1400
whannowc1450
wow1513
why?1520
heydaya1529
ah1538
ah me!a1547
fore me!a1547
o me!a1547
what the (also a) goodyear1570
precious coals1576
Lord have mercy (on us)1581
good heavens1588
whau1589
coads1590
ay me!1591
my stars!a1593
Gods me1595
law1598
Godso1600
to go out1600
coads-nigs1608
for mercy!a1616
good stars!1615
mercy on us (also me, etc.)!a1616
gramercy1617
goodness1623
what next?1662
mon Dieu1665
heugh1668
criminy1681
Lawd1696
the dickens1697
(God, etc.) bless my heart1704
alackaday1705
(for) mercy's sake!1707
my1707
deuce1710
gracious1712
goodly and gracious1713
my word1722
my stars and garters!1758
lawka1774
losha1779
Lord bless me (also you, us, etc.)1784
great guns!1795
mein Gott1795
Dear me!1805
fancy1813
well, I'm sure!1815
massy1817
Dear, dear!1818
to get off1818
laws1824
Mamma mia1824
by crikey1826
wisha1826
alleleu1829
crackey1830
Madonna mia1830
indeed1834
to go on1835
snakes1839
Jerusalem1840
sapristi1840
oh my days1841
tear and ages1841
what (why, etc.) in time?1844
sakes alive!1846
gee willikers1847
to get away1847
well, to be sure!1847
gee1851
Great Scott1852
holy mackerel!1855
doggone1857
lawsy1868
my wig(s)!1871
gee whiz1872
crimes1874
yoicks1881
Christmas1882
hully gee1895
'ullo1895
my hat!1899
good (also great) grief!1900
strike me pink!1902
oo-er1909
what do you know?1909
cripes1910
coo1911
zowiec1913
can you tie that?1918
hot diggety1924
yeow1924
ziggety1924
stone (or stiffen) the crows1930
hullo1931
tiens1932
whammo1932
po po po1936
how about that?1939
hallo1942
brother1945
tie that!1948
surprise1953
wowee1963
yikes1971
never1974
to sod off1976
whee1978
mercy1986
yipes1989
the mind > mental capacity > expectation > surprise, unexpectedness > exclamation of surprise [interjection] > mingled with horror
Heavens above1588
Heavens to Betsy1588
horror1879
crivens1917
1588 in J. Nichols Progresses Queen Elizabeth (1823) II. 559 O Heavens! O Earth! O never-dying Fame!
a1616 W. Shakespeare Tempest (1623) i. ii. 59 O the heauens, What fowle play had we. View more context for this quotation
1655 T. Stanley Hist. Philos. (1687) iii. 102/2 Good Heavens, what voice is this, how strange and stately?
1673 J. Dryden Assignation v. i. 58 Good Heavens, that I should live to see this day!
1709 R. Steele Tatler No. 23. ⁋7 Heavens! Is it possible you can live without Remorse?
1752 C. Lennox Female Quixote II. viii. iii. 187 Good Heavens! cried Mr. Glanville..quite out of patience, I shall go distracted!
1752 C. Lennox Female Quixote ix. i. 209 Oh, heavens!.. this must..be a very notable adventure.
1801 A. Opie Father & Daughter (1809) 102 Gracious Heaven! who are you?
1819 J. Marcet Conv. Nat. Philos. (1851) ii. 36 Heavens, Emily, what an idea!
1857 Ballou's Dollar Monthly Mag. May 419/1 ‘Heavens to Betsy!’ he exclaims, clapping his hand to his throat, ‘I've cut my head off!’
1887 W. P. Frith Autobiogr. II. iv. 75 Great heaven! What a place to stop at!
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!
1906 L. Mortimer No Mother to guide Her iv. 24 Heavens an' airth, child!
1913 ‘S. Rohmer’ Myst. Dr. Fu-Manchu xix. 205 The eyes—heavens above, the huge green eyes!
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 H. M. Hayward & M. Harari tr. B. Pasternak 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.
1995 New Scientist 9 Sept. 47/1 Heavens, I thought, I didn't know the Friends were into that.
2002 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 11 Oct. 23 Good heavens! That's the 38th game Brian has trounced me at!
c. Heaven forbid: see forbid v. 2b.
d. Heaven knows: (a) emphasizing the truth of a statement; (b) implying that something is unknown to the speaker, and probably also to others; frequently with what, where, who, etc.; cf. also what pron., adv., int., adj.1, conj., and n. Phrases 4a.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > attention and judgement > importance > [phrase] > rendering outstanding
in (or to) soothc1300
by my, your, etc.(good) sootha1400
in good or very sooth1577
Heaven knowsa1628
in the name of wonder1629
yes, sir1799
in no uncertain terms1958
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > want of knowledge, ignorance > that which is unknown > [phrase] > expressing lack of knowledge
God wotOE
God or Crist witec1175
Lord knows1614
Heaven knowsa1628
the stars know what (also how, etc.)1760
a1616 W. Shakespeare Macbeth (1623) v. i. 47 She ha's spoke what shee should not, I am sure of that: Heauen knowes what she ha's knowne. View more context for this quotation]
a1628 F. Greville Trag. Cicero (1651) iv. sig. D4v Heaven knows what calamities will follow.
1691 R. Ames Islington-Wells 18 Heaven knows what Bloodshed might ensue.
1711 J. Addison Spectator No. 164. ¶5 Heaven only knows how dear he was to me whilst he lived.
1790 M. P. Andrews Better Late than Never v. ii. 66 Heaven knows what agony it gave me.
a1807 W. Wordsworth Prelude (1959) x. 408 Not in Utopia, subterraneous Fields, Or some secreted Island, Heaven knows where.
1850 C. Dickens David Copperfield lx. 597 ‘Heaven knows we were!’ said I.
1872 ‘G. Eliot’ Middlemarch IV. viii. lxxiv. 198 She invites clergymen and heaven-knows-who.
a1916 ‘Saki’ Square Egg (1924) 125 From privates in the Regular Army to Heaven-knows-what in some intermediate corps.
1936 Delineator 129 48/3 It was clearly apart from the spirituals..and heaven knows, was unlike any music that America had been playing before.
1969 Listener 13 Mar. 351/2 Heaven knows, he'd been through this often enough in the past.
1971 J. Fleming Grim Death iv. 47 One of those floaters who wandered round the markets looking for heaven-knows what scraps of unrecognized treasure.
2004 New Yorker 2 Aug. 86/2 Heaven knows we need movie makers to start rooting around in recent scandals.
e. Followed by a transitive verb (as bless, help, preserve, etc.) and its object, in phrases expressing a strong desire or wish for the benefit, protection, well-being, etc., of the specified person or thing. Now also used more mildly. Cf. god n. and int. Phrases 1c(a).
ΚΠ
1631 T. Drue Life Dutches of Suffolke iii. sig. E2 Is this your Child, heaven blesse the little mopps.
1730 H. Fielding Author's Farce iii. i. 55 Heaven preserve him!
1846 H. Melville Typee II. xxvi. 249 Heaven help the ‘Isles of the Sea’!
1869 A. J. Evans Vashti xxviii. 396 Heaven shield you, my worshipped one!
1924 Sunday State Jrnl. (Lincoln, Nebraska) 28 Sept. b8/1 Heaven bless the radio!
2006 Today's Parent (Electronic ed.) Mar. 51 Hayley always wanted to try out the bathrooms at..stores, restaurants and, heaven help us, parks.
f. for heaven's sake (also in heaven's name): expressing entreaty, remonstration, or frustration.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > malediction > oaths > [interjection] > religious oaths (referring to God) > (originally) with reference to heaven
by heaven (also heavens)c1540
by the welkin1602
for heaven's sake1631
1631 T. Heywood Fair Maid of West: 1st Pt. iv. i. 52 Interrupt me not, But give me way for Heavens sake.
1639 R. Davenport New Tricke to cheat Divell v. i. sig. Iv In Heavens name What art thou?
1730 E. Haywood Love-lett. on All Occasions l. 178 But for Heavens Sake deal now sincerely with me.
1765 H. Brooke Fool of Quality (Dublin ed.) I. Ep. Ded. p. x Go on, my Good Friend, dispatch, in Heaven's Name!
1819 W. Scott Ivanhoe I. xiv. 283 ‘In heaven's name,’ said he, ‘to what purpose serve these abridged cloaks?’
1830 Huron Reflector (Norwalk, Ohio) 27 July For heaven's sake,..don't put that fat chub on the top.
1885 ‘E. Lyall’ In Golden Days III. xiv. 299 How in heaven's name did you manage it all?
1919 M. R. Rinehart Dangerous Days i. 8 For heaven's sake, hurry!
1990 C. R. Johnson Middle Passage (1991) vi. 135 Why in heaven's name had I not kept my mouth shut, or choked my luff, as sailors say.
2003 M. Kapur Married Woman (2004) i. 26 Don't cry, for heaven's sake.
P4. to move (also stir) heaven and earth: to make extraordinary efforts, esp. to do or achieve something.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > manner of action > effort or exertion > exert oneself or make an effort [verb (intransitive)] > make a great effort
to move (also stir) heaven and earth1580
to swelt one's heart1584
to sweat blood1911
to bust (also rupture) a gut1912
to fall over backwards1932
to bust (also break) one's balls1968
1580 Hooper's Certeine Expos. Psalmes ii. iii. f. 60v They fight, they fare foule, they moue heauen and earth to alter the purpose and minde of God: but, He that sitteth in heauen laugheth them to scorne.
1673 W. Lloyd tr. in Seasonable Disc. 16 To stir up the several Parties among us..the Monks will move heaven and earth.
1713 tr. Xenophon Hiero (ed. 2) 49/1 They move Heaven and Earth, and will never be at rest till their enamour'd System of Tyranny be erested.
1767 D. Garrick Let. 5 Apr. (1963) II. 562 Our Friends here will stir heaven & Earth to bring Us togeather.
1789 A. Young Jrnl. 7 Nov. in Trav. France (1792) i. 225 Englishmen..would move heaven and earth to establish a better conveyance, at a higher price.
1861 A. Trollope Orley Farm (1862) I. xix. 149 Papa..would move heaven and earth for her if he could.
1885 ‘F. Anstey’ Tinted Venus 49 There's the police moving heaven and earth to get you back again.
1904 C. Whibley Literary Portraits 113 His wife moved heaven and earth for her husband's enlargement.
1971 J. Fisher That Miss Hobhouse iii. 45 If only she were a man, she would stir Heaven and Earth to prevent this happening.
1984 B. MacLaverty Cal (new ed.) 31 Do you know how embarrassing it was for me? I moved heaven and earth to get you in there.
2001 Independent 28 Sept. 21/1 In the old days if a line went well you moved heaven and earth with your suppliers to get more—you never, ever put the price up.
P5.
a. a marriage (also match) made in heaven: an ideal or perfect (romantic) union or marriage between two people; also in extended use.
ΚΠ
1580 J. Lyly Euphues & his Eng. II. 223 Mariages are made in heauen, though consumated in yearth.]
1727 D. Defoe Conjugal Lewdness iv. 106 Is this Matrimony! Is this a Marriage made in Heaven!
1819 N. Amer. Rev. June 14 As this was truly a match made in heaven, they..live happily and have children and grandchildren.
1917 Musical Times 58 247/1 The alliance of music with the drama brings about an aesthetic enhancement... It is a marriage made in heaven.
2005 US Weekly (Electronic ed.) 62 They're a match made in heaven.
b. made in heaven: perfect, ideal; delightful. Chiefly as postmodifier.
ΚΠ
1946 Frederick (Maryland) Post 7 Nov. 2 (advt.) There's perfection in every stitch..of these ‘made in heaven’ coats.
1987 R. Flynn Wanderer Springs 72 It was an arrangement made in heaven.
2006 Sunday Tel. (Austral.) (Nexis) 21 May 13 You're in for a holiday or honeymoon made in heaven.
P6. though the heavens fall and variants [probably after post-classical Latin fiat justitia et ruant coeli ‘let justice be done though the heavens fall’ (1602 or earlier; compare quots. 1602, 1958); compare classical Latin ruant caeli tonitralia templa lest the thundering vaults of heaven should burst (Lucretius De Rerum Natura 1. 1083)] : in any circumstances; ‘no matter what’, ‘come what may’.
ΚΠ
1602 W. Watson Decacordon Ten Quodlibeticall Questions App. 338 You (deere Catholikes)..goe against that Generall maxime in the lawes, which is that, fiat iustitia & ruant cœli.]
1821 N. Amer. Rev. Apr. 313 The syntax shall come to pass though the heavens fall.
1865 Times 3 Feb. 7/1 His Honour..will give me right, though the Heavens fall.
1917 Sunday State Jrnl. (Madison, Wisconsin) 26 Aug. 7/4 American ladies will have clothes, no matter if the heavens fall.
1958 Compar. Stud. Society & Hist. 1 20 The insistence that justice be done though the heavens fall.
2003 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) (Electronic ed.) Mar. 276 Though the heavens fall, she'll be a good mother.
P7. to stink to high heaven: see stink v. 2e.
P8. pennies from heaven: see penny n. Phrases 2e.

Compounds

C1.
a. General use as a modifier.Some early Middle English instances in hevene are probably examples of the genitive case (the reflex of Old English heofone, the genitive of the strong feminine); see etymological note and cf. Lady Day n., Lady chapel n., bridewell n., etc.
ΚΠ
OE Phoenix 173 Ðær he heanne beam on holtwuda wunað ond weordað, wyrtum fæstne under heofum hrofe [read heofunhrofe], þone hatað men Fenix on foldan, of þæs fugles noman.
OE Ælfric 1st Let. to Wulfstan (Corpus Cambr. 201) in B. Fehr Die Hirtenbriefe Ælfrics (1914) 120 Ne hi [sc. þa unclænan weofodþegnas] swa fule ne moton into his fægeran heofonhealle.
a1300 (c1275) Physiologus (1991) 149 Wat if he leue haue of ure Heuen-Louerd For to deren us?
a1325 (c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 1547 Heuene dew, and erðes fetthed.
a1325 (c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 281 Al ðe ðhinges..Twen heuone hil and helle dik.
a1325 (c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 101 Ðe firmament..mai ben hoten heuene rof.
a1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) vii. l. 534 Under the hevene cope.
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Vesp.) l. 18741 (MED) Þe toþer [man] us come fra heuen ture [a1400 Fairf. heyuen toure].
a1400 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Gött.) l. 8290 (MED) An angel com fra heuen trone.
a1500 (?a1450) Gesta Romanorum (BL Add. 9066) (1879) 373 The Ioye of heuyn life.
1581 A. Hall tr. Homer 10 Bks. Iliades iv. 61 The most famous rich Citie vnder the heauen cope.
1605 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Deuine Weekes & Wks. i. ii. 49 Many heau'n-flouds in our flouds doo lose-em.
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost xii. 52 Ere the Tower Obstruct Heav'n Towrs. View more context for this quotation
1844 E. B. Browning Rhapsody Life's Progress viii On the Heaven~heights of Truth.
1870 F. M. Müller Sci. Relig. (1873) 172 We have in the Veda the invocations dyaũs pítar..and that means..Heaven-Father!
1882 J. Parker Apostolic Life I. 43 God came down in the great heaven-wind and the great heaven-fire.
1892 Science 15 Jan. 29/1 The primal Aryan deity..as Dyaus-pitar (Heaven-father) in India.
1935 C. Day Lewis Compl. Poems (1992) 190 The heaven-wind parts your hair, the sun Is wintering in your eyes.
1954 Amer. Anthropologist 56 857 Men, animals and plants are directly or indirectly descendants of a heaven father and an earth mother.
1994 V. M. Ortiz tr. Lu You in Art Bull. 76 272 Heaven wind suddenly sends pagoda bell's sound Wakes me from pure reverie.
b. Objective, as in heaven-defying, heaven-threatening, etc., adjectives.; heaven-climber, heaven-stormer, etc., nouns.
ΚΠ
eOE Cleopatra Gloss. in W. G. Stryker Lat.-Old Eng. Gloss. in MS Cotton Cleopatra A.III (Ph.D. diss., Stanford Univ.) (1951) 68 Arcitenens, heofenhæbbend.
1597 G. Markham tr. G. Pétau de Maulette Deuoreux f. 40v To read the sacred heau'n-out-lyuing scroule.
1602 R. Carew Surv. Cornwall ii. f. 115 Set forth, against that heauen-threatning Armado.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Hamlet (1623) iii. iv. 57 Mercurie New lighted on a heauen-kissing hill [1604 a heaue, a kissing hill].
a1644 F. Quarles Solomons Recantation (1645) xi. 60 When that blood pleads, heav'n will not lend an eare If heav'n-engaging Charity be not there.
a1678 A. Marvell Billborow Hill in Misc. Poems (1681) 74 The cliff Of Heaven-daring Teneriff.
1705 Moderation Vindicated 12 What Frontless and Heaven-daring Language is this?
1780 W. Cowper Table Talk 418 Perjury, that Heaven-defying vice.
1818 J. Keats Endymion i. 17 Giving out a shout most heaven rending.
1827 J. Keble Christian Year I. xlviii. 191 Heaven assailing cries.
1880 G. Meredith Tragic Comedians II. vii. 110 The whole Alpine..heaven-climbers.
1911 Encycl. Brit. XV. 222/1 It is to Amaterasu (the heaven-illuminating goddess) that the Japanese pay reverence above all other deities.
1993 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 18 Nov. 68/2 He does not specify how his ‘irrationalism’ differs from that of the heaven-stormers.
2006 New Musical Express 25 Mar. 20/1 Heavily-set riffs and heaven-scraping melodies elevate the quartet above the legion of bad Coldplay photocopies.
c. Instrumental and locative, as in heaven-bred, heaven-flying, heaven-kenning, heaven-protected, heaven-taught, etc., adjectives. See also heaven-born adj. and n.In quot. OE the adjective is used as a noun.
ΚΠ
eOE Junius Psalter ciii. 12 Super ea volucres cæli habitabunt de medio petrarum dabunt voces suas : ofer ða heofonfleogende fuglas eardiað of midle stana sellað stefna his.
OE Hymns (Durh. B.iii.32) lxxxix. 1 in I. Milfull Hymns of Anglo-Saxon Church (1996) 338 Sublimis residens virgo Maria supra celigenas aetheris omnes : healic sittende mæden ofer heofancennede roderes ealle.
?1594 M. Drayton Peirs Gaueston sig. K3 The heauen-dyed flowers in this happy clyme.
1606 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Deuine Weekes & Wks. (new ed.) ii. iv. 52 Words of the Heau'n-prompted stile.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Two Gentlemen of Verona (1623) iii. ii. 71 Much is the force of heauen-bred Poesie. View more context for this quotation
1659 W. Chamberlayne Pharonnida iii. iii. sig. P4v The Heaven-built Pillers of his Soul.
1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost x. 535 All yet left of that revolted Rout Heav'n-fall'n, in station stood. View more context for this quotation
1717 A. Pope tr. Homer Iliad III. ix. 803 The Fall of Heav'n-protected Troy [Gk. Ἰλίου αἰπεινῆς, lit. ‘lofty Troy’].
1742 E. Young Complaint: Night the Third 5 Reason, that Heav'n-lighted Lamp in Man.
1777 R. Potter tr. Æschylus Tragedies 47 Heav'n-sprung [Gk. θέορτον, lit ‘sprung from the gods’], or mortal? If permitted, say.
1793 R. Burns Poems (ed. 2) II. 239 Here Poesy might wake her heaven taught lyre.
1810 L. Aikin Epist. Women 31 The heaven-taught bards..All hail!
1849 J. C. Hare Serm. Preacht Herstmonceux Church II. 227 In the free heaven-lit atmosphere of the Gospel.
1865 E. B. Pusey Eirenicon 256 The Heaven-controlled Seer.
a1870 J. Kershaw Serm. (1995) xvi. 257 Heaven-born souls are never satisfied, never happy, never comfortable, but as they seek and enjoy their dear Redeemer, their All in all.
1913 J. C. Kimball Ethical Aspects Evol. i. 19 Something which could not originate in any evolutionized love of life, or in anything but a Heaven-implanted altruism.
1932 T. E. Lawrence tr. Homer Odyssey (new ed.) iv. 45 Upon first sight of this palace of the heaven-nurtured king the visitors paused in amaze.
2001 N. Griffiths Sheepshagger 36 Hanging so still above the damp landscape as if on wires heaven-rooted, it is paradigm of hunt and harry.
d. Similative, as in heaven-bright, heaven-clear, heaven-sweet, etc., adjectives. See also heaven-high adj., heaven-wide adv.
ΚΠ
1593 T. Lodge Phillis sig. Ev He neuer sawe one, That had more heauen-sweet lookes.
?1611 G. Chapman tr. Homer Iliads ii. 26 Agamemnon, Ioue that day, made ouerheighten clere,That heauen-bright armie.
1658 A. Cokayne Chain of Golden Poems 121 Heaven-bright summer washeth us in springs.
1791 T. Dwight Triumph of Infidelity 7 All my heav'n-bright glories sought the grave.
1821 C. Lamb Leisure The heaven-sweet burthen of eternity.
1840 J. G. Whittier in Friend 1 Aug. 348/3 So strange, Heaven-broad, and lone.
1904 W. de la Mare Henry Brocken 4 It was heaven-clear to me.
1953 W. de la Mare O Lovely England 28 No heaven-sweet air but must die.
1953 J. Baldwin Go tell it on Mountain iii. 280 For his hands were new, and his feet were new, and he moved in a new and Heaven-bright air.
e. Modifying (chiefly participial) adjectives, with the sense ‘to or toward heaven’, as heaven-aspiring, heaven-bound, heaven-dear, etc., adjectives.
ΚΠ
1601 J. Weever Mirror of Martyrs sig. B4 Reason outbrau'd this heauen-aspiring hoast.
1605 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Deuine Weekes & Wks. i. i. 23 Heau'n-bent Soules.
1605 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Deuine Weekes & Wks. ii. ii. 430 'Mong the Heau'n-deere spirits.
1607 J. Davies Summa Totalis sig. K1v Then (with that Heu'n-rapt Saint) rapt Muse, ascend.
a1711 T. Ken Christophil in Wks. (1721) I. 526 A Heav'n-aspiring Mind.
a1711 T. Ken Hymnotheo v, in Wks. (1721) III. 155 With a Heav'n-erected Look.
1770 W. Hodson Ded. Temple of Solomon 19 This Heav'n-devoted Shrine.
1848 P. J. Bailey Festus (ed. 3) 253 The Heaven-affianced spirit.
1858 N. Hawthorne Fr. & Ital. Jrnls. II. 126 This heaven-aspiring tower.
1882 Harper's Mag. June 120/2 They made her a grave at the foot of her favorite tree—a grand heaven-reaching pine, clothed with a mist of perfumed plumy green.
1925 V. Lindsay Coll. Poems 116 How the tears of the distracted demons became a heaven-climbing flame.
1997 B. Wagner I'm losing You (1998) 241 Yet there it was, irrefutable, like the whistle of a thousand trains, heaven-bound.
f. Parasynthetic, as in heaven-hued, heaven-scented, etc.
ΚΠ
1609 W. Shakespeare Louers Complaint in Sonnets sig. K4v The heauen hewd Saphir.
1800 W. S. Landor Poetry 37 The floor..seemed to wave It's [sic] liquid surface like the heaven-hued sea.
a1822 P. B. Shelley Witch of Atlas in Compl. Wks. (1904) 421 It unfurled its heaven-coloured pinions, With stars of fire spotting the stream below.
1878 ‘G. Eliot’ Let. 27 June (1956) VII. 34 The day before yesterday came your sweet words with the bit of heaven-scented plant.
1933 Eng. Jrnl. 22 289 The creative imagination as a sort of rainbow, evanescent, heaven-hued, born of inspiration.
1946 D. Thomas Deaths & Entrances 30 The woman breasted and heaven headed Bird.
2007 Mail on Sunday (Nexis) 4 Feb. (You Mag.) 71 I'm wild about Willow's heaven-scented, totally natural products.
C2.
Heaven-abandoned adj. (also with lower-case initial in the first element) now rare = godforsaken adj. (cf. sense 7).
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > aspects of faith > piety > impiety > [adjective]
unrighteouseOE
hinderfulc1200
undevouta1300
unreligiousa1382
unkindc1390
unpiteous?c1400
indevout?1504
ungodly1526
godless1528
profane1568
ungodded1579
impious1585
unhalloweda1616
godforsaken?1623
devoteless1650
atheistic1677
undivine1686
Heaven-abandoned1720
indevotea1742
unctionless1842
indevotional1865
link1889
the mind > emotion > suffering > dejection > [adjective] > gloomy or depressing
darkOE
unmerryOE
deathlyc1225
dolefulc1275
elengec1275
dreicha1300
coolc1350
cloudyc1374
sada1375
colda1400
deadlya1400
joylessc1400
unjoyful?c1400
disconsolatea1413
mournfula1425
funeralc1425
uncheerfulc1449
dolent1489
dolesome1533
heavy-hearted1555
glum1558
ungladsome1558
black1562
pleasureless1567
dern1570
plaintive?1570
glummish1573
cheerless1575
comfortless1576
wintry1579
glummy1580
funebral1581
discouraging1584
dernful?1591
murk1596
recomfortless1596
sullen1597
amating1600
lugubrious1601
dusky1602
sable1603
funebrial1604
damping1607
mortifying1611
tearful?1611
uncouth1611
dulsome1613
luctual1613
dismal1617
winterous1617
unked1620
mopish1621
godforsaken?1623
uncheerly1627
funebrious1630
lugubrous1632
drearisome1633
unheartsome1637
feral1641
drear1645
darksome1649
sadding1649
saddening1650
disheartening1654
funebrous1654
luctiferous1656
mestifical1656
tristifical1656
sooty1657
dreary1667
tenebrose1677
clouded1682
tragicala1700
funereal1707
gloomy1710
sepulchrala1711
dumpishc1717
bleaka1719
depressive1727
lugubre1727
muzzy1728
dispiriting1733
uncheery1760
unconsolatory1760
unjolly1764
Decemberly1765
sombre1768
uncouthie1768
depressing1772
unmirthful1782
sombrous1789
disanimating1791
Decemberish1793
grey1794
uncheering1796
ungenial1796
uncomforting1798
disencouraginga1806
stern1812
chilling1815
uncheered1817
dejecting1818
mopey1821
desponding1828
wisht1829
leadening1835
unsportful1837
demoralizing1840
Novemberish1840
frigid1844
morne1844
tragic1848
wet-blanketty1848
morgue1850
ungladdeneda1851
adusk1856
smileless1858
soul-sick1858
Novemberya1864
saturnine1863
down1873
lacklustre1883
Heaven-abandoneda1907
downbeat1952
doomy1967
1720 E. F. Haywood Love in Excess: 3rd Pt. 56 Why then, there's not a Heaven-abandon'd Wretch, so Lost—so Curst as I.
1799 Llewellin III. vi. 183 My first thought..was to proceed according to legal forms against the Heaven abandoned homicides.
1859 G. A. Sala Twice round Clock 351 Heaven-abandoned and forlorn, with their bare liver-coloured feet beating the devil's tattoo on the pavement, their lean shoulders shrugged up to their sallow cheeks.
a1907 A. I. Shand Memories of Gardens (1908) vi. 158 The Eilwagen..waiting to take any chance traveller to some Heaven-abandoned townlet in the wilds.
1926 Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2 Aug. 6/8 In Mexico, in Mexico, in Heaven-abandoned Mexico, Whence comes the oil for Texaco, Socony and the Gulf.
† heaven-bow n. Obsolete a rainbow.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > weather and the atmosphere > weather > rainbow > [noun]
bowa1000
rainbowOE
heaven-bowc1390
iris1490
rainy bow1597
archa1616
bow of promise1820
OE tr. Pseudo-Apuleius Herbarium (Vitell.) (1984) clviii. 200 Ys geðuht þæt heo [sc. the iris] þone heofonlican bogan mid hyre bleo geefenlæce [L. a coelestis arcus similitudine nomen accepit].]
c1390 Castle of Love (Vernon) (1967) l. 743 For heuene-bouwe is abouten ibent, Wiþ alle þe hewes þat him beþ isent.
† heaven-bridge n. Cultural Anthropology Obsolete rare (in various belief systems of the Old World) a mythical bridge over which the dead pass into heaven.
ΚΠ
1865 E. B. Tylor Res. Early Hist. Mankind 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.
1908 C. R. Conder Rise of Man iv. 226 The owl is the sacred bird of death, after whom the heaven-bridge is named.
† heaven-burster n. [after a 19th-cent. folk etymology of Samoan papālagi (see papalagi n.)] Obsolete = papalagi n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > people > ethnicities > division of mankind by physical characteristics > white person > [noun]
white mana1398
Christian1622
European1666
white-face1684
long knife1784
buckra1794
sahib1796
white-skin1803
whitey1811
Pakeha1817
papalagi1817
paleface1823
whitefellow1826
Abelungu1836
haole1843
gringo1849
lightiea1855
umlungu1859
mzungu1860
heaven-burster1861
ladino1877
mooniasc1880
Conchy Joe1888
béké1889
ofay1899
ridge runner1904
Ngati Pakeha1905
kelch1912
pink1913
leucoderm1924
fay1927
Mr Charlie1928
pinkie1935
devil1938
wonk1938
oaf1941
grey1943
paddy1945
Caucasoid1956
Jumble1957
Caucasian1958
white boy1958
pinko-grey1964
honky1967
toubab1976
palagi1977
1861 G. Turner Nineteen Years in Polynesia x. 103 Of old the Samoans thought the heavens ended at the horizon, and hence the name which they give, to this day, to the white men, viz. pāpālangi, or heaven-bursters.
1865 E. B. Tylor Res. Early Hist. Mankind xii. 349 The Polynesians..still call foreigners ‘heaven-bursters’, as having broken in from another world outside.
heaven god n. a god of or in a heaven; a sky god.
ΚΠ
1870 E. B. Tylor in Jrnl. Ethnol. Soc. 2 379 The Heaven-god is the Chinese Tien or the Greek Zeus.
1871 E. B. Tylor Primitive Culture II. 235 The Aztec Tlaloc was no doubt originally a Heaven-god, for he holds the thunder and lightning.
1904 Amer. Jrnl. Theol. 8 189 Totemistic and animistic gods or spirits, even a heaven god, have been taken up into this all-embracing Jahwe.
2000 Korea Herald (Nexis) 3 Oct. A mural painting from around the fifth century..depicts a version of the Tangun legend, in which a bear and a tiger were both subjected to tests of their fortitude by a heaven god.
† heaven-plant n. Cultural Anthropology Obsolete rare = heaven-tree n. (b).
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > trees and shrubs > unidentified or variously identified > [noun] > mythical or biblical
almug1539
teil1568
goose-tree1597
cerbas1605
heaven-tree1835
heaven-plant1865
the world > the supernatural > deity > heaven > [noun] > tree of life > in non-Christian heaven
tuba1817
heaven-tree1835
heaven-plant1865
1865 E. B. Tylor Res. Early Hist. Mankind xii. 346 A story..which contains the episode of the heaven-plant.
heaven-send n. something received as if sent specially from heaven, a godsend.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > advantage > [noun] > an advantage, benefit, or favourable circumstance > a benefit > as sent from God or heaven
God's gift1586
God's send1629
godsend1779
heaven-send1811
1811 H. Martyn in Mem. (1825) iii. 436 This was a Heaven-send.
1887 Cent. Mag. Nov. 45/2 The man who has been away, is a heaven-send in a village.
2005 Kamloops (Brit. Columbia) Daily News (Nexis) 17 Nov. a5 The whole evening was just over the top and the trip to Disneyland was a real topper. But the cheque for $20,000 today was a heaven send.
heaven-tree n. [in sense (a) after Malay kayu langit, (Ambonese) ai lanit tree reaching to the sky, lit. ‘sky tree’ (see ailanthus n.); quot. 1865 (compare sense (b)) apparently refers to a myth recounted in G. Turner Nineteen Years in Polynesia (1861) 246, but Turner does not use the expression heaven-tree] (a) Botany a tree of the genus Ailanthus, esp. Ailanthus altissima; a tree of heaven (cf. ailanthus n.); (b) Cultural Anthropology a mythical tree growing from the underworld, through the earth, and up to heaven, which figures in some Malay and Polynesian beliefs (rare).
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > trees and shrubs > unidentified or variously identified > [noun] > mythical or biblical
almug1539
teil1568
goose-tree1597
cerbas1605
heaven-tree1835
heaven-plant1865
the world > the supernatural > deity > heaven > [noun] > tree of life > in non-Christian heaven
tuba1817
heaven-tree1835
heaven-plant1865
1835 R. H. Budd Compl. Pract. Farmer iii. 241 Alianthus glandulosus [sic], the heaven tree of the Chinese, is a fine stately tree, and though introduced from a warmer climate, bears the intense cold of our winters perfectly uninjured.
1865 E. B. Tylor Res. Early Hist. Mankind 348 In the Samoan group..there was a heaven-tree, where people went up and down, and when it fell it stretched some sixty miles.
1916 H. B. Alexander in L. H. Gray et al. Mythol. of all Races X. iii. 35 He directed her to take a certain journey through the heaven realm of Chief He-Holds-the-Earth, whom she was to marry, and beside whose lodge grew the great heaven tree.
1940 K. A. Porter Flowering Judas 110 The bouginvillea climbing up the wall and the heaven tree in full bloom.
1997 Independent (Nexis) 15 Apr. 11 A further derelict room contains the sectioned trunk of a heaven tree in bud, complete with pigeon's nest and eggs.
heaven-worshippers n. [after post-classical Latin caelicolae, plural (see Caelicolae n.)] = Caelicolae n. 2.
ΚΠ
1693 J. Edwards Disc. conc. Old & New-Test. I. iv. 154 The Cœlicolæ, the Heaven-worshippers, mentioned in that Title of the Codex, De Judæis & Cœlicolis.
1704 Dictionarium Sacrum seu Religiosum at Celicoli Celicoli, i.e. Heaven-Worshippers, certain Vagabonds, in 408, condemned in the Rescripts of the Emperor Honorius, amongst Heathens and Hereticks.
1899 S. M. A. Dill Rom. Soc. in Last Cent. of Western Empire (ed. 2) iii. 38 A law of 409 directed..Jovius, to take the severest measures against those renegades who were adopting the superstition of the Heaven-worshippers.
1996 I. Levinskaya Bk. of Acts in its Diaspora Setting 103 In the law of 407, the heaven-worshippers were condemned along with the heretics.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

heavenv.

Brit. /ˈhɛvn/, U.S. /ˈhɛv(ə)n/
Forms: see heaven n.
Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: heaven n.
Etymology: < heaven n. Compare hell v.2, and also slightly earlier unheaven v.
Now rare.
transitive. To transport into heaven; to make supremely happy, enrapture; to beatify; (also) to make heavenly in character or appearance.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > deity > heaven > [verb (transitive)] > make heavenly
paradise1593
heaven1614
celestify1646
celestialize1830
the mind > emotion > pleasure > happiness > supreme or heavenly happiness > make supremely happy [verb (transitive)]
beatify1535
imparadise1592
heaven1614
enheaven1652
1614 T. Adams Diuells Banket ii. 81 He heauens himselfe on earth, & for a litle pelfe cousens himselfe of blisse.
1628 O. Felltham Resolves: 2nd Cent. xlviii. sig. Q7v They are idle Divines, that are not heav'ned in their liues, aboue the vn-studious man.
1637 S. Rutherford Lett. (1863) I. 225 Surely I were rich enough, and as well heavened as the best of them, if Christ were my heaven.
1650 H. Vaughan Silex Scintillans 18 He heav'nd their walks, and with his eyes Made those wild shades a Paradise.
1839 P. J. Bailey Festus 358 Heaven our spirits! Hallow our hearts!
1893 F. Thompson Poems 5 Others shall fear lest, heavened thus long, Thou should'st forget thy native song.
1924 Observer 13 Apr. 12/4 They [sc. Byron's Tales]..enraptured the public and heavened Murray.
1970 G. Corso Elegiac Feelings Amer. 117 I..Knelt and heavened a child again.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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