1. Of or pertaining to Elysium.
1622. Massinger, etc. Virgin Mart., IV. iii. The remembrance of the Elysian joys thou might’st have tasted.
1667. Milton, P. L., III. 358. The river of Bliss … Rowls o’re Elisian Flours her amber stream.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res. (1858), 42. Is that a real Elysian brightness…?
1882. ‘Ouida,’ Maremma, I. 149. Vast grasslands … covered in spring with the elysian asphodel.
b. Elysian fields = ELYSIUM 1 and 2; also fig.
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., Nov., 179. I see thee blessed soule, I see, Walk in Elisian fieldes so free.
1641. Maisterton, Serm., 23. Orchards of delight, surpassing the Elysian fields.
1716. Lady M. W. Montague, Lett., xl. I. 162. This place … perfectly answers the description of the Elysian fields.
1843. Carlyle, Past & Pr. (1858), 102. Roman Latin itself, still alive for us in the Elysian Fields of Memory, is domestic in comparison.
2. fig. Of the nature of, or resembling, what is in Elysium; beatific, glorious.
1750. Johnson, Rambl., No. 36, ¶ 1. We … suffer ourselves … to be transported to elysian regions.
1813. Byron, Br. Abydos, I. vi. Too transcendent vision, When heart meets heart again in dreams Elysian.
1850. Mrs. Jameson, Leg. Monast. Ord. (1863), 277. Nothing can be imagined more … bright and elysian than these figures.
B. as sb. = ELYSIUM. Obs. rare.
1586. Marlowe, 1st Pt. Tamburl., V. ii. To get a passage to Elisian. Ibid. Hell and Elisian swarme with Ghosts of men.
Hence Elysianize v. intr., to speak in terms of rapturous or extravagant approbation.
1872. Bushnell, Serm. Living Subj., 413. They … fall into a strain of elysianizing.
