English

Verb

to take to one’s bed

1. To become bedbound due to sickness or infirmity.
   • 1873, Charles Dickens, The Poems of Adelaide A. Procter, Introduction:

     And so the time came when she could move about no longer, and took to her bed.

   • 1883 December, Harper’s Magazine, page 135:

     By-and-by he took to his bed.

   • 1901, Andrew Lang, "The Maiden with the Wooden Helmet" in The Violet Fairy Book:

     Each day he grew more and more wretched, till at length he took to his bed and never got up.

   • 1920, D. H. Lawrence, Women in Love, ch. 16:

     He liked sometimes to be ill enough to take to his bed.

   • 2008 Oct. 23, David Smith, "Eminem set for comeback," New Zealand Herald (retrieved 19 Sep. 2011):

     He says he took to his bed for a year and couldn't write.