Promised Land

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Promised Land

1. (Judaism, Christianity) The area historically known as Judea, which was promised to the Israelites by God according to oral tradition recorded in the Book of Genesis.
   • 1910, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 3, in The Intrusion of Jimmy:

     At last, after years of patient waiting, he stood like Moses on the mountain, looking down into the Promised Land.

2. (Mormonism) America.
3. (idiomatic, sometimes lower case) Heaven or the afterlife.
   • 1901, Gilbert Parker, chapter 3, in The March of The White Guard:

     "Be good, my boy, and God will make you great." Then she said she was cold, and . . . murmured: "I'll away, I'll away to the Promised Land—to the Promised Land. […] It is cold—so cold—God keep my boy!"

   • 1934 July 16, "Heroes: Brave Engineer," Time:

     On Sunday night, April 29, 1900 Engineman John Luther Jones, called "Casey", […] took his farewell journey to the promised land.

• Zion

Promised Land (plural Promised Lands)

1. (idiomatic, sometimes lower case) Any place to which one eagerly seeks to go and which one expects to greatly improve one's situation.
   • c. 1820, Washington Irving, "The Early Experiences of Ralph Ringwood" in The Crayon Papers:

     The country, too, which had been the promised land of my boyhood, did not, like most promised lands, disappoint me.

   • 1857, Charlotte Brontë, chapter 25, in The Professor:

     When Frances had developed her plan, she intimated, in some closing sentences, her hopes for the future. […] [A]nd what was to hinder us from going to live in England? England was still her Promised Land.

   • 1912, Annie Fellows Johnston, Mary Ware's Promised Land, ch. 8:

     That is the danger that always menaces people when they get over into their Promised Land.