heaven

ENEnglish
//ˈhɛvən//

Direct German Translations & Equivalents:

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Verb Conjugation Tables & Inflections

Key Verb Forms & Inflections
Third-person singular (he/she/it):heavens
Present Participle (-ing):heavening
Past Participle:heavened
Simple Past:heavened

Definitions & Usage

noun
#2

(religion) The abode of God or the gods, traditionally conceived as beyond the sky; especially:

noun
#3

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

Example: 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...
noun
#4

(by extension) Any paradise; any blissful place or experience.

Example: England, that was formerly the heaven, would be now the hell for women.
Example: Such a shop as that...would be quite a heaven upon earth to me.
Translations:
noun
#5

(by extension) A state of bliss; a peaceful ecstasy.

Example: Husbandes are in heauen...whose wiues scold not.
noun
#6

(informal, with a modifier) Similarly blissful afterlives, places, or states for particular people, animals, or objects.

verb
#7

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

verb
#8

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

verb
#9

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

Notable Literary & Historical Quotes

Ile follow thee and make a heauen of hell.

c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “A Midsommer Nights Dreame”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

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

1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

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

1940, H.G. Wells, Babes in the Darkling Wood, II iii 198:

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