vault of heaven
- noun
- /vɔlt əv ˈhɛvən/
- Literature
:
cúpula del cielo
- touch the vault of heaven
Examples
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In the old days, people knew about the planets, but they thought the stars were in some sort of vault of heaven just a bit further away than the planets.
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The stars twinkled brightly against the deep blue of the vault of heaven.
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As we lay on the grass, we marveled at the vastness of the vault of heaven above us.
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The poet described the sunset as painting the vault of heaven in hues of orange and pink.
Synonyms
13
9.9
The sky above the earth that people imagine as a wide dome with stars
8
6.8
The imaginary surface around the Earth where stars and planets appear
4
1.4
The sky seen as a wide space with the sun, moon, and stars
1
9.9
The sky above the earth where clouds and stars appear
1
9.9
The highest part of the sky thought to be where heaven is
1
8.4
An imaginary ball around the Earth in the sky where stars and planets appear to be
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase literally combines 'vault' (an arched ceiling or dome) with 'heaven(s)' (the sky), so the meaning of the sky as a dome is directly inferable from the constituents; the metaphor is simple and transparent rather than idiomatic. This ceiling→sky mapping is common in many languages and in poetic register, so a B1 learner who knows the component words would likely understand the MWE.
Etymology
The poetic phrase vault of heaven comes from a simple image: people long ago imagined a big curved vault as a roof over the heaven, with the sun, moon and stars moving across it. So today vault of heaven is a poetic way to mean the wide 'sky' above us.