pearly gates

See also: Pearly Gates

English

Alternative forms

• Pearly Gates

Etymology

After the description in Revelation 21:21.

Noun

pearly gates pl (plural only)

1. (biblical) The entrance way to Heaven.
   • 1795, Joseph Bromehead, Jerusalem, My Happy Home:

     When shall these eyes thy heaven-built walls / And pearly gates behold?

   • 1855, Frederick Douglass, chapter 7, in My Bondage and My Freedom. […], New York, Auburn, N.Y.: Miller, Orton & Mulligan […], →OCLC:

     This immense wealth; this gilded splendor; this profusion of luxury; this exemption from toil; this life of ease; this sea of plenty; aye, what of it all? Are the pearly gates of happiness and sweet content flung open to such suitors?

   • 1908, Harold McGraff, chapter 27, in The Lure of the Mask:

     The narrowness of the imagination of the old masters is generally depicted in their canvases. Heaven to them was a serious business of pearly gates, harps, halos, and aërial flights on ambient pale clouds.

   • 1910, Jack London, chapter 20, in Burning Daylight:

     I'd toss for pennies on the front steps of the New Jerusalem or set up a faro layout just outside the Pearly Gates.

   • 1971, John Prine (lyrics and music), “Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore”, in John Prine:

     By the time they got a doctor down / I was already dead / And I'll never understand why the man / Standing in the Pearly Gates said…

   • 2007, “Videotape”, in In Rainbows, performed by Radiohead:

     When I'm at the pearly gates / This'll be on my videotape, my videotape

2. (by extension) Heaven itself.

Anagrams

• stageplayer