welkin

noun

1. The sky which appears to an observer on the Earth as a dome in which celestial bodies are visible; the firmament.

   “He leaues the vvelkin vvay moſt beaten playne, / And rapt with vvhirling vvheeles, inflames the ſkyen, / With fire not made to burne, but fayrely for to ſhyne.”

   “The ſkye it ſeemes vvould povvre dovvn ſtinking pitch, / But that the Sea, mounting to th' vvelkins cheeke, / Daſhes the fire out.”

   “Come (Sir Page) / Looke on me vvith your VVelkin eye: […]”

   “I knowe more then Apollo, / For oft when hee ly’s sleeping / I see yͤ starrs att bloudie warres / In yͤ wounded welkin weeping, […]”

   “VVhen ſvvallovvs fleet ſoar high and ſport in air, / He told us that the vvelkin vvou'd be clear.”

2. The upper atmosphere occupied by clouds, flying birds, etc.

   “[W]ho you are, and vvhat you vvould are out of my vvelkin, I might ſay Element, but the word is ouer-vvorne.”

   “Rhotus was going on when day appear'd, / And with its light the cloudy welkin clear'd.”

   “For trifles only suit an idle hour, / When school is emptied or the welkins pour.”

   “Down washed the rain, deep lowered the welkin; the clouds, ruddy a while ago, had now, through all their blackness, turned deadly pale, as if in terror.”

   “At Saddlers Springs the mules raised the welkin braying for their horse cobbers that had been unsaddled before them.”

3. The place above the Earth where God or other deities live; heaven.

   “[T]his villanous Poetry vvill vndoe you, by the VVelkin.”

   “Hovv glittereth novv this place of great requeſt, / Like to the ſeat of heavenly vvelkin hie?”

   “[…] Cassiopœia was taken, / Deep-bosomed wife of the king, whom oft far-seeing Apollo / Watched well-pleased from the welkin, the fairest of Æthiop women: […]”

   “Here we have the sky thrice, three welkins, three lights, three heavens, three earths.”