Heaven

7 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Heaven \Heav"en\ (h[e^]v"'n), n. [OE. heven, hefen, heofen, AS.
     heofon; akin to OS. hevan, LG. heben, heven, Icel. hifinn; of
     uncertain origin, cf. D. hemel, G. himmel, Icel. himmin,
     Goth. himins; perh. akin to, or influenced by, the root of E.
     heave, or from a root signifying to cover, cf. Goth.
     gaham[=o]n to put on, clothe one's self, G. hemd shirt, and


     perh. E. chemise.]
     1. The expanse of space surrounding the earth; esp., that
        which seems to be over the earth like a great arch or
        dome; the firmament; the sky; the place where the sun,
        moon, and stars appear; -- often used in the plural in
        this sense.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              I never saw the heavens so dim by day. --Shak.
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              When my eyes shall be turned to behold for the last
              time the sun in heaven.               --D. Webster.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. The dwelling place of the Deity; the abode of bliss; the
        place or state of the blessed after death.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Unto the God of love, high heaven's King. --Spenser.
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              It is a knell
              That summons thee to heaven or to hell. --Shak.
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              New thoughts of God, new hopes of Heaven. --Keble.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: In this general sense heaven and its corresponding
           words in other languages have as various definite
           interpretations as there are phases of religious
           belief.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     3. The sovereign of heaven; God; also, the assembly of the
        blessed, collectively; -- used variously in this sense, as
        in No. 2.; as, heaven helps those who help themselves.
        [1913 Webster +PJC]
  
              Her prayers, whom Heaven delights to hear. --Shak.
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              The will
              And high permission of all-ruling Heaven. --Milton.
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     4. Any place of supreme happiness or great comfort; perfect
        felicity; bliss; a sublime or exalted condition; as, a
        heaven of delight. "A heaven of beauty." --Shak. "The
        brightest heaven of invention." --Shak.
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              O bed! bed! delicious bed!
              That heaven upon earth to the weary head! --Hood.
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     Note: Heaven is very often used, esp. with participles, in
           forming compound words, most of which need no special
           explanation; as, heaven-appeasing, heaven-aspiring,
           heaven-begot, heaven-born, heaven-bred,
           heaven-conducted, heaven-descended, heaven-directed,
           heaven-exalted, heaven-given, heaven-guided,
           heaven-inflicted, heaven-inspired, heaven-instructed,
           heaven-kissing, heaven-loved, heaven-moving,
           heaven-protected, heaven-taught, heaven-warring, and
           the like.
           [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Heaven \Heav"en\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Heavened} (h[e^]v"'nd);
     p. pr. & vb. n. {Heavening}.]
     To place in happiness or bliss, as if in heaven; to beatify.
     [R.]
     [1913 Webster]
  
           We are happy as the bird whose nest
           Is heavened in the hush of purple hills. --G. Massey.
     [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  heaven
       n 1: any place of complete bliss and delight and peace [syn: {eden},
             {paradise}, {nirvana}, {promised land}, {Shangri-la}]
       2: the abode of God and the angels [ant: {Hell}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  180 Moby Thesaurus words for "heaven":
     Agapemone, Arcadia, Avalon, Big Rock-Candy Mountain, Caelus,
     Canaan, Civitas Dei, Cloudcuckooland, Cockaigne, Eden, Eldorado,
     Erewhon, Garden of Eden, Goshen, Happy Valley, Land of Youth,
     Laputa, Never-Never-land, Neverland, New Atlantis,
     Olympian heights, Pandemonium, Quivira, Saturnia regna,
     Saturnian age, Shangri-la, Utopia, Valhalla, Zion, acme,
     aerial heights, age of Aquarius, air, apex, apogee, azure,
     beatification, beatitude, bewitchment, blessedness, bliss,
     blissfulness, blue sky, brow, caelum, canopy, canopy of heaven,
     cap, cerulean, cheer, cheerfulness, climax, cloud nine, cloudland,
     contentment, cope, crest, crown, culmen, culmination, delectation,
     delight, dizzy heights, dreamland, dystopia, ecstasy, ecstatics,
     edge, elation, elevation, elysium, eminence, empyrean, enchantment,
     era of prosperity, ether, exaltation, exhilaration, extreme limit,
     extremity, exuberance, faerie, fair weather, fairyland, felicity,
     firmament, gaiety, gladness, glee, golden age, golden era,
     golden time, good times, halcyon days, happiness,
     happy hunting ground, heavens, height, heights, hereafter, heyday,
     high noon, high spirits, highest pitch, highest point, hyaline,
     intoxication, joy, joyance, joyfulness, kakotopia, kingdom,
     kingdom come, land of dreams, land of enchantment, land of faerie,
     land of plenty, land of promise, lift, lifts, limit, lotus land,
     maximum, meridian, millennium, mountaintop, ne plus ultra, nirvana,
     no place higher, noon, overhappiness, overjoyfulness, palmy days,
     paradise, peak, pinnacle, piping times, pitch, point, pole,
     promised land, prosperity, raise, rapture, ravishment,
     reign of Saturn, ridge, rise, rising ground, rosy era,
     seventh heaven, sky, spire, starry heaven, steep, stratosphere,
     summit, sunshine, the blue, the blue serene, tip, tip-top, top,
     transport, unalloyed happiness, upmost, upper extremity, uppermost,
     uprise, utmost, utopia, vantage ground, vantage point, vault,
     vault of heaven, vertex, very top, welkin, wonderland, zenith
  
  

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  86 Moby Thesaurus words for "Heaven":
     Acheron, Almighty God, Alpha and Omega, Atropos, Clotho,
     Dame Fortune, Decuma, Demiourgos, Demiurge, Fata, Fates, Fortuna,
     God, God Almighty, Hell, I Am, Jehovah, Jordan, King of Kings,
     Lachesis, Lord, Lord of Lords, Lord of hosts, Moirai, Morta, Nona,
     Norns, Omnipotence, Omniscience, Paradise, Parcae, Providence,
     Skuld, Stygian shore, Styx, Tyche, Urdur, Verthandi, Weird Sisters,
     Weirds, a better place, afterlife, afterworld, destiny,
     eternal home, fate, future state, home, life after death,
     life to come, next world, otherworld, postexistence,
     river of death, the Absolute, the Absolute Being, the All-holy,
     the All-knowing, the All-merciful, the All-powerful, the All-wise,
     the Almighty, the Creator, the Deity, the Divinity, the Eternal,
     the Eternal Being, the First Cause, the Infinite,
     the Infinite Spirit, the Maker, the Omnipotent, the Omniscient,
     the Preserver, the Supreme Being, the Supreme Soul, the beyond,
     the good hereafter, the grave, the great beyond,
     the great hereafter, the hereafter, the unknown, what bodes,
     what is fated, world to come
  
  

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Heaven
     (1.) Definitions. The phrase "heaven and earth" is used to
     indicate the whole universe (Gen. 1:1; Jer. 23:24; Acts 17:24).
     According to the Jewish notion there were three heavens,
     
       (a) The firmament, as "fowls of the heaven" (Gen. 2:19; 7:3,
     23; Ps. 8:8, etc.), "the eagles of heaven" (Lam. 4:19), etc.
     
       (b) The starry heavens (Deut. 17:3; Jer. 8:2; Matt. 24:29).
     
       (c) "The heaven of heavens," or "the third heaven" (Deut.
     10:14; 1 Kings 8:27; Ps. 115:16; 148:4; 2 Cor. 12:2).
     
       (2.) Meaning of words in the original,
     
       (a) The usual Hebrew word for "heavens" is _shamayim_, a
     plural form meaning "heights," "elevations" (Gen. 1:1; 2:1).
     
       (b) The Hebrew word _marom_ is also used (Ps. 68:18; 93:4;
     102:19, etc.) as equivalent to _shamayim_, "high places,"
     "heights."
     
       (c) Heb. galgal, literally a "wheel," is rendered "heaven" in
     Ps. 77:18 (R.V., "whirlwind").
     
       (d) Heb. shahak, rendered "sky" (Deut. 33:26; Job 37:18; Ps.
     18:11), plural "clouds" (Job 35:5; 36:28; Ps. 68:34, marg.
     "heavens"), means probably the firmament.
     
       (e) Heb. rakia is closely connected with (d), and is rendered
     "firmamentum" in the Vulgate, whence our "firmament" (Gen. 1:6;
     Deut. 33:26, etc.), regarded as a solid expanse.
     
       (3.) Metaphorical meaning of term. Isa. 14:13, 14; "doors of
     heaven" (Ps. 78:23); heaven "shut" (1 Kings 8:35); "opened"
     (Ezek. 1:1). (See 1 Chr. 21:16.)
     
       (4.) Spiritual meaning. The place of the everlasting
     blessedness of the righteous; the abode of departed spirits.
     
       (a) Christ calls it his "Father's house" (John 14:2).
     
       (b) It is called "paradise" (Luke 23:43; 2 Cor. 12:4; Rev.
     2:7).
     
       (c) "The heavenly Jerusalem" (Gal. 4: 26; Heb. 12:22; Rev.
     3:12).
     
       (d) The "kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 25:1; James 2:5).
     
       (e) The "eternal kingdom" (2 Pet. 1:11).
     
       (f) The "eternal inheritance" (1 Pet. 1:4; Heb. 9:15).
     
       (g) The "better country" (Heb. 11:14, 16).
     
       (h) The blessed are said to "sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and
     Jacob," and to be "in Abraham's bosom" (Luke 16:22; Matt. 8:11);
     to "reign with Christ" (2 Tim. 2:12); and to enjoy "rest" (Heb.
     4:10, 11).
     
       In heaven the blessedness of the righteous consists in the
     possession of "life everlasting," "an eternal weight of glory"
     (2 Cor. 4:17), an exemption from all sufferings for ever, a
     deliverance from all evils (2 Cor. 5:1, 2) and from the society
     of the wicked (2 Tim. 4:18), bliss without termination, the
     "fulness of joy" for ever (Luke 20:36; 2 Cor. 4:16, 18; 1 Pet.
     1:4; 5:10; 1 John 3:2). The believer's heaven is not only a
     state of everlasting blessedness, but also a "place", a place
     "prepared" for them (John 14:2).
     

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  HEAVEN, n.  A place where the wicked cease from troubling you with
  talk of their personal affairs, and the good listen with attention
  while you expound your own.