paradise

Less common meanings

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To place someone in paradise, or in a state like paradise.

   Hadst thou seene Her, in whose breast my heart was paradis’d, Kist, courted, and imbrac’d.

   1632, Thomas Heywood, The Iron Age

   Note

   The verb mostly appears as a past participle, often spelled paradis'd: Giles Fletcher's The Reward of the Faithfull (1623) has the first man paradis'd in the garden, and Thomas Heywood's The Iron Age (1632) a heart paradis'd in a lover's breast. It belongs to religious and love writing of the 1600s, where imparadise did the same work. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 6 facts

   • Giles Fletcher wrote The Reward of the Faithfull, published in 1623. en.wikisource.org
   • Fletcher's work describes the first man as paradis'd in the garden. en.wiktionary.org
   • Thomas Heywood wrote The Iron Age, first published in 1632. emed.folger.edu
   • The Iron Age describes a heart as paradis'd in a lover's breast. en.wiktionary.org
   • The verb occurs in religious and love writing of the seventeenth century. en.wiktionary.org
   • Imparadise also expressed placing someone in paradise or a comparable state during that century. en.wiktionary.org
6. 6
   church courtyardnounobsoletecountable

   An open space within a monastery or next to a church, such as the area inside a cloister or the open court in front of a basilica.

   Note

   Old church architecture used this name, and it has since fallen out of use, but it left a relative behind: parvis, the same word reshaped on its way through French, is still the name for the open court in front of a cathedral or large church. In an old account of a monastery, a paradise may be a court, a cloister or a convent garden, so read it in context. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • Paradise historically denoted an architectural space within a monastery or beside a church; this sense is labelled obsolete. en.wiktionary.org
   • Parvis shares its origin with paradise and reached English through French. en.wikipedia.org
   • Parvis denotes a courtyard before a cathedral or church. en.wiktionary.org
   • Paradise could denote a convent garden as well as a court or cloister; the context determines which. en.wiktionary.org
7. 7
   graveyardnounobsoletecountable

   A burial ground, whether a churchyard or a cemetery.

   Note

   This obsolete use can trip up a reader of old records: a paradise beside a church may simply be its burial ground, not the home of souls after death. Context usually settles it, since a coffin carried into the paradise is going to a grave. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact

   • Paradise has an obsolete sense meaning a churchyard or cemetery, making a burial-ground interpretation possible in old records. en.wiktionary.org
8. 8
   verbobsolete

   To transform something, such as a place, into a paradise.

   1613, Thomas Heywood, “Epithalamion” in A Marriage Triumphe Solemnized in an Epithalamium, London: Edward Marchant, She enters with a sweet commanding grace, Her very presence paradic’d the place:

   Note

   Its subject can be the person or blessing that works the change: a woman whose very presence paradic'd the place, in Thomas Heywood's Epithalamion (1613), or efforts aimed at paradising the world, in a letter of Ann Willson's from 1828. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • Thomas Heywood used 'Her very presence paradic’d the place' in a work identified as 'Epithalamion', published in 1613. en.wiktionary.org
   • Ann Willson's letter dated 1828 discusses aiming at 'paradising the world' and describes these efforts as potentially blessed. en.wiktionary.org
   • The wording about paradising the world and the associated efforts occurs in the letter. en.wiktionary.org
9. 9
   verbobsolete

   To affect or uplift someone with visions of happiness.

   Similarentrance, bewitch

   Note

   Even in its own time this was a rare verb, close in sense to entranced or bewitched. It could sneer as well as praise: John Marston's Parasitaster, or The Fawn (1606) mocks long-fortunate politicians who were so sottishly paradized, foolishly lulled by their luck. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

   • This sense is close to 'entrance' or 'bewitch'. en.wiktionary.org
   • John Marston wrote Parasitaster, or The Fawn, first published in 1606. gutenberg.org
   • The play mockingly describes long-fortunate politicians as foolishly paradised. Dondolo speaks the passage; the item's wording combines modernized spelling with the original 'paradized'. gutenberg.org
10. 10
    noun

    A kind of cake, often made and sold as paradise slice.
11. 11
    nounslang

    The upper gallery of seats in a theater.