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Bed   /bɛd/   Listen
noun
Bed  n.  
1.
An article of furniture to sleep or take rest in or on; a couch. Specifically: A sack or mattress, filled with some soft material, in distinction from the bedstead on which it is placed (as, a feather bed), or this with the bedclothes added. In a general sense, any thing or place used for sleeping or reclining on or in, as a quantity of hay, straw, leaves, or twigs. "And made for him (a horse) a leafy bed." "I wash, wring, brew, bake,... make the beds." "In bed he slept not for my urging it."
2.
(Used as the symbol of matrimony) Marriage. "George, the eldest son of his second bed."
3.
A plat or level piece of ground in a garden, usually a little raised above the adjoining ground. "Beds of hyacinth and roses."
4.
A mass or heap of anything arranged like a bed; as, a bed of ashes or coals.
5.
The bottom of a watercourse, or of any body of water; as, the bed of a river. "So sinks the daystar in the ocean bed."
6.
(Geol.) A layer or seam, or a horizontal stratum between layers; as, a bed of coal, iron, etc.
7.
(Gun.) See Gun carriage, and Mortar bed.
8.
(Masonry)
(a)
The horizontal surface of a building stone; as, the upper and lower beds.
(b)
A course of stone or brick in a wall.
(c)
The place or material in which a block or brick is laid.
(d)
The lower surface of a brick, slate, or tile.
9.
(Mech.) The foundation or the more solid and fixed part or framing of a machine; or a part on which something is laid or supported; as, the bed of an engine.
10.
The superficial earthwork, or ballast, of a railroad.
11.
(Printing) The flat part of the press, on which the form is laid. Note: Bed is much used adjectively or in combination; as, bed key or bedkey; bed wrench or bedwrench; bedchamber; bedmaker, etc.
Bed of justice (French Hist.), the throne (F. lit bed) occupied by the king when sitting in one of his parliaments (judicial courts); hence, a session of a refractory parliament, at which the king was present for the purpose of causing his decrees to be registered.
To be brought to bed, to be delivered of a child; often followed by of; as, to be brought to bed of a son.
To make a bed, to prepare a bed; to arrange or put in order a bed and its bedding.
From bed and board (Law), a phrase applied to a separation by partial divorce of man and wife, without dissolving the bonds of matrimony. If such a divorce (now commonly called a judicial separation) be granted at the instance of the wife, she may have alimony.


verb
Bed  v. t.  (past & past part. bedded; pres. part. bedding)  
1.
To place in a bed. (Obs.)
2.
To make partaker of one's bed; to cohabit with. "I'll to the Tuscan wars, and never bed her."
3.
To furnish with a bed or bedding.
4.
To plant or arrange in beds; to set, or cover, as in a bed of soft earth; as, to bed the roots of a plant in mold.
5.
To lay or put in any hollow place, or place of rest and security, surrounded or inclosed; to embed; to furnish with or place upon a bed or foundation; as, to bed a stone; it was bedded on a rock. "Among all chains or clusters of mountains where large bodies of still water are bedded."
6.
(Masonry) To dress or prepare the surface of stone) so as to serve as a bed.
7.
To lay flat; to lay in order; to place in a horizontal or recumbent position. "Bedded hair."


Bed  v. i.  To go to bed; to cohabit. "If he be married, and bed with his wife."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Bed" Quotes from Famous Books



... When Admiral is annoyed and chased disagreeably by either of his two cage-mates he runs into his sleeping-den, slams the steel door shut from the inside, and thus holds his tormentors completely at bay until it suits him to roll the door back again and come out. At night in winter when he goes to bed he almost always shuts the door tightly from within, and keeps it closed all night. He does not believe in sleeping- porches, nor wide-open windows ...
— The Minds and Manners of Wild Animals • William T. Hornaday
... recently returned with a British convoy from America. They were in Dover at the time. From his sick bed in a hospital, the captain of the Plymouth had appealed to the British naval authorities. In spite of the fact that he was in no condition to leave when he received his orders, he did not wish to deny his crew the privilege of seeing active service, which the call ...
— The Boy Allies with the Victorious Fleets - The Fall of the German Navy • Robert L. Drake
... from the traditions of the well-made play. Gloomy and homely as are the earlier acts, Ibsen sees as yet no way out of the imbroglio but that known to Scribe and the masters of the "well-made" play. The social hypocrisy of Consul Bernick is condoned by a sort of death-bed repentance at the close, which is very much of the usual "bless-ye-my-children" order. The loss of the Indian Girl is miraculously prevented, and at the end the characters are solemnized and warned, yet are left essentially none the worse for ...
— Henrik Ibsen • Edmund Gosse
... of Serum, and the Crassamentum was of a loose Texture. The feverish Symptoms had increased, with the Addition of a Delirium: pergat. On the 7th, the Delirium was grown more violent, so that he could scarce be kept in Bed; his Breathing was difficult, his Eyes red and florid: A Blister was applied to his Back, and the saline Mixture continued. On the 8th, there was no Alteration in the Course of that Day; but being lower towards Night, ...
— An Account of the Diseases which were most frequent in the British military hospitals in Germany • Donald Monro
... perpetual faith in reason and justice: a holy passion for the good and right, which possessed it, and made it devote itself to its work; like the statuary who seeing the fire in the furnace, where he was casting his bronze, on the point of being extinguished, threw his furniture, his children's bed, and even his house into the flame, preferring rather that all should perish than that ...
— History of the Girondists, Volume I - Personal Memoirs of the Patriots of the French Revolution • Alphonse de Lamartine


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