heaven

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   in religions, often a place where gods, angels, and other beings live

   To enter Christian heaven, one should believe in the reincarnation of Jesus.

2. 2
   noun

   The sky, specifically:

   All that is vnder the heauen.

3. 3
   noun

   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.

4. 4
   noun

   The afterlife of the blessed dead, traditionally conceived as opposed to an afterlife of the wicked and unjust (compare hell); specifically

   I wonder what your idea of heaven would be—A beautiful vacuum filled with wealthy monogamists, all powerful and members of the best families drinking themselves to death. And hell would probably be an ugly vacuum full of poor polygamists unable to obtain booze... To me heaven would be a big bull ring with me holding two barrera seats and a trout stream outside that no one else was allowed to fish in and two lovely houses in the town; one where I would have my wife and children and be monogamous and love them truly and well and the other where I would have my nine beautiful mistresses on 9 different floors...

5. 5
   noun

   Any paradise; any blissful place or experience.

   Ile follow thee and make a heauen of hell.

6. 6
   noun

   A state of bliss; a peaceful ecstasy.

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

7. 7
   noun

   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.

8. 8
   verb

   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.

Etymology

From a wide variety of Middle English forms including hevene, heven, hevin, and hewin (“heaven, sky”), from Old English heofon, heofone (“heaven, sky”), from Proto-West Germanic *hebn (“heaven, sky”), of uncertain origin. Cognate with Scots heiven, hewin (“heaven, sky”), Middle Dutch heven (“sky, heaven”), Low German Heven (“heaven, sky”), and possibly the rare Icelandic and Old Norse hifinn (“heaven, sky”), which are all probably dissimilated forms of the Germanic root which appears in Old Norse himinn (“heaven, sky”), Gothic 𐌷𐌹𐌼𐌹𐌽𐍃 (himins, “heaven, sky”), Old Swedish himin, Old Danish himæn…