to sleep in heavenly peace
- idiom
- Archaic
:
descansar en paz
- After a long illness, she finally slept in heavenly peace surrounded by her family.
Examples
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His obituary said he slept in heavenly peace after a life well lived.
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May she sleep in heavenly peace.
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We pray that all those lost may sleep in heavenly peace.
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He will sleep in heavenly peace now.
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After a long illness, she finally slept in heavenly peace surrounded by her family.
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His obituary said he slept in heavenly peace after a life well lived.
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We pray that all those lost may sleep in heavenly peace.
Synonyms
258
2.7
To die, said in a gentle or polite way
8
3.8
To die peacefully in a gentle, respectful way
1
8.5
To stop living
To die as a Christian who trusts in God and expects life after death
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase literally combines 'sleep' with the locative 'in' and the descriptor 'heavenly peace', so a learner who knows the words can infer a state of peaceful, sacred rest. However, understanding it specifically as a euphemism for dying requires cultural/pragmatic knowledge and the conventional metaphoric mapping of 'sleep' onto death, so the meaning is not fully predictable from the parts alone. This makes the item partially transparent but dependent on prior exposure.
Etymology
Sleep in heavenly peace comes from a comforting picture of someone sleeping calmly in heavenly peace, as in the song 'Silent Night'. So people use it as a gentle way to say 'to die peacefully'.