heaven

noun

1. (countable, dated, plural-normally, poetic, uncountable)The sky, specifically:

   “All that is vnder the heauen.”

   “The ordinaunce...made such a great noyse and thunderyng that it seemed the heaven would have fallen.”

   “In ascending orderly vpwardes...The first is the Spheare of the Moone...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.”

   “What obscured light the heauens did grant.”

   “The Heauens...are carried in 24 houres from East to West.”

2. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)The sky, specifically:

   “Everie...Countrie, by the nature of the place, the climate of the Heaven, and the influence of the starres hath certaine vertues.”

   “The qualitie of mercie is not ſtraind, it droppeth as the gentle raine from heauen vpon the place beneath”

   “Fellow-believers...fed the birds of heaven with the carcases of pious and reverend Church-men.”

3. (countable, obsolete, uncountable)The sky, specifically:

   “Euery man cannot, with Archimedes, make a heauen of brasse.”

4. (capitalized, countable, uncountable, usually)The abode of God or the gods, traditionally conceived as beyond the sky; especially:

   “And there was a battel in heauen. Michael & his Angels foght againſt the dragon, and the dragon foght & his Angels. But they preuailed not, nether was their place founde anie more in heauen.”

   “Conſider firſt that the excommunicated Prelate ſaith... Kings are not immediatly from God, as by any ſpeciall Ordinance ſent from Heaven by the miniſtery of Angels and Prophets, there were but ſome few ſuch, as Moſes, Saul, David, etc.”

   “Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav'n.”

   “Christ's coming from the heavens has entered into the life of humanity as the Founder of the world to come.”

5. (broadly, capitalized, countable, often, uncountable)The abode of God or the gods, traditionally conceived as beyond the sky; especially:

   “With Ioue in heauen, or some where else.”

   “As he [Muhammad] was returning, in the fourth Heaven, Moses advised him to goe back to God.”

   “Like the Buddhas, they [the Jains] believe that there is a plurality of heavens and hells.”

   “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.”

   “To grasp the Chinese's notion of Heaven, we must look at the contexts in which tian is used... In the Book of Odes (Shi jing 詩經), which includes poems dated between the eleventh and seventh centuries BCE, tian is a place where the Heavenly Thearch resides.”

6. (broadly, capitalized, countable, uncountable, usually)The abode of God or the gods, traditionally conceived as beyond the sky; especially:

   “[…]he cannot thriue, Vnlesse her prayers, whom heauen delights to heare And loues to grant, repreeue him from the wrath Of greatest Iustice.”

   “After that thou shalt haue knowen that the heauens doe rule.”

   “[…]The will And high permission of all-ruling Heaven.”

   “Heaven commands thine arm To lift the sure-destroying sword!”

   “...executing the just judgment of offended Heaven upon cattle-houghers, traitors, and assassins.”

7. (countable, uncountable)The afterlife of the blessed dead, traditionally conceived as opposed to an afterlife of the wicked and unjust (compare hell); specifically
8. (countable, uncountable)The afterlife of the blessed dead, traditionally conceived as opposed to an afterlife of the wicked and unjust (compare hell); specifically:

   “Teache the people to gett heuen with fastynge.”

   “...what I speake My body shall make good vpon this earth, Or my diuine soule answer it in heauen.”

   “Wee haue a great high Priest, that is passed into the heauens.”

9. (broadly, capitalized, countable, often, uncountable)The afterlife of the blessed dead, traditionally conceived as opposed to an afterlife of the wicked and unjust (compare hell); specifically:

   “The belief in ascending to Heaven after death became widespread in the Han dynasty.”

10. (broadly, countable, uncountable)Any paradise; any blissful place or experience.

    “Ile follow thee and make a heauen of hell.”

    “England, that was formerly the heaven, would be now the hell for women.”

    “The mind is its own place, and in it self Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n.”

    “Such a shop as that...would be quite a heaven upon earth to me.”

    “They thought strikes and hunger marches the quintessence of politics and Soviet Russia heaven on earth.”

11. (broadly, countable, uncountable)A state of bliss; a peaceful ecstasy.

    “Husbandes are in heauen...whose wiues scold not.”

    “Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven!”

    “He would just stare at me and say, “You are beautiful, you are so beautiful.” I was in heaven hearing this.”

    “We're in heaven.”

    “She was in heaven — she'd never seen so many stars gathered in one place. She already had her eye on Charlie Dollar. Oh yes, Charlie Dollar might be ancient, but he was still raging hot in a Jack Nicholson kind of way.”

12. (countable, informal, uncountable)Similarly blissful afterlives, places, or states for particular people, animals, or objects.

    “Perhaps it has gone to the dog heaven, and is wagging somewhere in glory.”

    “His pet name for Easthampton is ‘Goose-heaven’, and he harps upon the idea eternally.”

    “One gray beard who found the gates closed shinned up the fifteen foot fence...and dropped into the baseball heaven he was seeking.”

    “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.”

    “The building was once a candy factory, which makes it, Frazier says, mouse heaven.”

verb

1. (obsolete)To transport to the abode of God, the gods, or the blessed.

   “He heauens himselfe on earth, & for a litle pelfe cousens himselfe of blisse.”

2. (obsolete)To beatify, enchant, or please greatly.

   “They [Byron's Tales]...enraptured the public and heavened Murray.”

3. (obsolete)To beautify, to make into a paradise.

name

1. The abode of God or the gods, when considered as a specific location; the abode of the blessed departed who reside in the presence of God or the gods

   “Conſider firſt that the excommunicated Prelate ſaith... Kings are not immediatly from God, as by any ſpeciall Ordinance ſent from Heaven by the miniſtery of Angels and Prophets, there were but ſome few ſuch, as Moſes, Saul, David, etc.”

   “Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav'n.”

   “Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd, / Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman ſcorn'd.”

   “To grasp the Chinese's notion of Heaven, we must look at the contexts in which tian is used... In the Book of Odes (Shi jing 詩經), which includes poems dated between the eleventh and seventh centuries BCE, tian is a place where the Heavenly Thearch resides.”

2. Providence, the will of God or the gods, when considered as a personal entity or specific aspect of the divine; Fate

   “...but that the will And high permission of all-ruling Heaven Left him at large to his own dark designs,”

   “Heaven commands thine arm To lift the sure-destroying sword!”

   “...executing the just judgment of offended Heaven upon cattle-houghers, traitors, and assassins.”

   “Cosmologists regarded Heaven as a force—composed of qi (氣), which was divided into yin (陰) and yang (陽) aspects—that kept the cosmos moving.”

3. (uncommon)Other extended senses of heaven as a specific place similar to the abode of God, the gods, or the blessed departed

   “The mind is its own place, and in it self Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n.”

4. (obsolete)The sky, particularly its distant aspect as the abode of the sun, moon, and stars

   “Everie...Countrie, by the nature of the place, the climate of the Heaven, and the influence of the starres hath certaine vertues.”

   “The Heauens...are carried in 24 houres from East to West.”

5. (Chinese)The supreme God or Nature which controls the universe.

   “What Heaven has conferred is called the Nature...”

   “...‘Heaven’ as we use it throughout the book is only a convenient but inaccurate translation of the Chinese character tian. Heaven in Chinese religions as well as in the Confucian tradition has multidimensional implications... In its metaphysical and physical connotation, Heaven... refers to... Nature. Applied in the spiritual realm, it signifies an anthropomorphic Lord or a Supreme Being who presides in Heaven, and rules over or governs directly the spiritual and material worlds.”

   “It was not just the sky, but a god with wills and intentions, seen as sovereign of all... In fact, "Tian" was another reverent term to address the supreme god: "Heaven, for the help of the inferior people, made for them rulers, and made for them instructors" ("Great Declaration I" in the Book of History)...”

6. (uncommon)A surname originating as a patronymic derived from Evan
7. (rare)A female given name from English of modern usage from the noun heaven.