Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition

Bed

Bed

,
Noun.
[AS.
bed
,
bedd
; akin to OS.
bed
, D.
bed
,
bedde
, Icel.
be[GREEK]r
, Dan.
bed
, Sw.
bädd
, Goth.
badi
, OHG.
betti
, G.
bett
,
bette
, bed,
beet
a plat of ground; all of uncertain origin.]
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
.
Byron.
I wash, wring, brew, bake, . . . make the
beds
.
Shakespeare
In
bed
he slept not for my urging it.
Shakespeare
2.
(Used as the symbol of matrimony) Marriage.
George, the eldest son of his second
bed
.
Clarendon.
3.
A plat or level piece of ground in a garden, usually a little raised above the adjoining ground.
“Beds of hyacinth and roses.”
Milton.
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
.
Milton.
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.
Knight.
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.
☞ 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.

Bed

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Bedded
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Bedding
.]
1.
To place in a bed.
[Obs.]
Bacon.
2.
To make partaker of one’s bed; to cohabit with.
I'll to the Tuscan wars, and never
bed
her.
Shakespeare
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
.
Wordsworth.
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.”
Shak.

Bed

,
Verb.
I.
To go to bed; to cohabit.
If he be married, and
bed
with his wife.
Wiseman.

Webster 1828 Edition

Bed

BED

,
Noun.
[The sense is a lay or spread, from laying or setting.]
1.
A place or an article of furniture to sleep and take rest on; in modern times, and among civilized men, a sack or tick filled with feathers or wool; but a bed may be made of straw or any other materials. The word bed includes often the bedstead.
2.
Lodging; a convenient place for sleep.
3.
Marriage; matrimonial connection.
George, the eldest son of his second bed.
4.
A plat or level piece of ground in a garden, usually a little raised above the adjoining ground.
5.
The channel of a river,or that part in which the water usually flows.
6.
Any hollow place, especially in the arts; a hollow place, in which any thing rests; as the bed of a mortar.
7.
A layer; a stratum; an extended mass of any thing, whether upon the earth or within it; as a bed of sulphur; a bed of sand or clay.
8.
Pain, torment. Rev.2. The grave. Is.57. The lawful use of wedlock. Heb.13.
The bed of the carriage of a gun is a thick plank which lies under the piece, being, as it were, the body of the carriage.
The bed of a mortar is a solid piece of oak, hollow in the middle, to receive the britch and half the trunnions.
In masonry, bed is a range of stones, and the joint of the bed is the mortar between two stones placed over each other.
Bed of justice, in France, was a throne on which the king was seated when he went to parliament. Hence the phrase, to hold a bed of justice.
To make a bed, is to put it in order after it has been used.
To bring to bed, to deliver of a child, is rarely used. But in the passive form, to be brought to bed, that is, to be delivered of a child, is common. It is often followed by of; as, to be brought to bed of a son.
To put to bed, in midwifery, is to deliver of a child.
Dining bed, or discubitory bed, among the ancients, a bed on which persons lay at meals. It was four or five feet high, and would hold three or four persons. Three of these beds were ranged by a square table, one side of the table being left open, and accessible to the waiters. Hence the Latin name for the table and the room, triclinium, or three beds.
From bed and board. In law, a separation of man and wife,without dissolving the bands of matrimony, is called a separation from bed and board, a mensa et thoro. In this case the wife has a suitable maintenance allotted to her out of the husband's estate, called alimony.

Definition 2024

bed

bed

See also: B.Ed., BED, běd, and beð

English

A bed (furniture)

Noun

bed ‎(plural beds)

  1. A piece of furniture, usually flat and soft, for resting or sleeping on.
    My cat often sleeps on my bed.
    I keep a glass of water next to my bed when I sleep.    ‎
    • 1762, Charles Johnstone, The Reverie; or, A Flight to the Paradise of Fools, volume 2, Dublin: Printed by Dillon Chamberlaine, OCLC 519072825, page 202:
      At length, one night, when the company by ſome accident broke up much ſooner than ordinary, ſo that the candles were not half burnt out, ſhe was not able to reſiſt the temptation, but reſolved to have them ſome way or other. Accordingly, as ſoon as the hurry was over, and the ſervants, as ſhe thought, all gone to ſleep, ſhe ſtole out of her bed, and went down ſtairs, naked to her ſhift as ſhe was, with a deſign to ſteal them […].
    1. A prepared spot to spend the night in.
      When camping, he usually makes a bed for the night from hay and a blanket.‎
    2. (usually after a preposition) One's place of sleep or rest.
      Go to bed!  I had breakfast in bed this morning.‎
    3. (uncountable, usually after a preposition) Sleep; rest; getting to sleep.
      He's been afraid of bed since he saw the scary film.‎
    4. (uncountable, usually after a preposition) The time for going to sleep or resting in bed; bedtime.
      I read until bed.‎
    5. (uncountable) Time spent in a bed.
      • 1903, Thomas Stretch Dowse, Lectures on Massage and Electricity in the Treatment of Disease, page 276:
        I am quite sure that too much bed, if not too much sleep, is prejudicial, though a certain amount is absolutely necessary.
      • 1907, Jabez Spencer Balfour, My Prison Life, page 181:
        Some prisoners, indeed, are always up before the bell rings — such was my practice — they prefer to grope about in the dark to tossing about in the utter weariness of too much bed.
      • 1972, James Verney Cable, Principles of Medicine: An Integrated Textbook for Nurses:
        This condition is one of the dangers of "too much bed". The nurse should inspect the legs of each patient daily
    6. (figuratively) Marriage.
    7. (figuratively, uncountable) Sexual activity.
      Too much bed, not enough rest.‎
  2. A place, or flat surface or layer, on which something else rests or is laid.
    The meats and cheeses lay on a bed of lettuce.‎
    1. The bottom of a body of water, such as an ocean, sea, lake, or river. [from later 16thc.]
      sea bed;  river bed;  lake bed;  There's a lot of trash on the bed of the river.‎
    2. An area where a large number of oysters, mussels, other sessile shellfish, or a large amount of seaweed is found.
      Oysters are farmed from their beds.‎
      • 1941, Emily Carr, Klee Wyck, Chapter 18,
        I knew that there were kelp beds and reefs which could rip the bottoms from boats down in Skedans Bay.
    3. A garden plot.
      We added a new bush to our rose bed.‎
      • 1907, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “chapter V”, in The Younger Set (Project Gutenberg; EBook #14852), New York, N.Y.: A. L. Burt Company, published 1 February 2005 (Project Gutenberg version), OCLC 4241346:
        Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume; she saw the tufted lilacs sway in the wind, and the streamers of mauve-tinted wistaria swinging, all a-glisten with golden bees; she saw a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagers flashing like scarlet flames athwart the pines.
    4. A foundation or supporting surface formed of a fluid.
      A bed of concrete makes a strong subsurface for an asphalt parking lot.‎
    5. The superficial earthwork, or ballast, of a railroad.
    6. The platform of a truck, trailer, railcar, or other vehicle that supports the load to be hauled.
      The parcels were loaded onto the truck bed before transportation.‎
    7. A shaped piece of timber to hold a cask clear of a ship’s floor; a pallet.
    8. (printing, dated) The flat part of the press, on which the form is laid.
    9. A piece of music, normally instrumental, over which a radio DJ talks.
    10. (darts) Any of the sections of a dartboard with a point value, delimited by a wire.
  3. (heading) A layer or surface.
    1. A deposit of ore, coal, etc.
    2. (geology) the smallest division of a geologic formation or stratigraphic rock series marked by well-defined divisional planes (bedding planes) separating it from layers above and below.
    3. (masonry) The horizontal surface of a building stone.
      the upper and lower beds‎
    4. (masonry) The lower surface of a brick, slate, or tile.
      (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)
    5. (masonry) A course of stone or brick in a wall.

Usage notes

Sense 1. To prepare a bed is usually to "make" the bed, or (US, Southern) to "spread" the bed, the verb spread probably having been developed from bedspread. Like many nouns denoting places where people spend time, bed requires no article after certain prepositions: hence in bed ‎(“lying in a bed”), go to bed ‎(“get into a bed”), and so on. The forms in a bed, etc. do exist, but tend to imply mere presence in the bed, without it being for the purpose of sleep.

See also Appendix:MakeDoTakeHave

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

the bottom of a lake or other body of water

Verb

bed ‎(third-person singular simple present beds, present participle bedding, simple past and past participle bedded)

  1. Senses relating to a bed as a place for resting or sleeping.
    1. To go to a bed. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
    2. (transitive) To place in a bed.
      (Can we find and add a quotation of Francis Bacon to this entry?)
    3. To put oneself to sleep. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
    4. (transitive) To furnish with a bed or bedding.
    5. (transitive, slang) To have sexual intercourse with. [from early 14th c.]
  2. Senses relating to a bed as a place or layer on which something else rests or is laid.
    1. (transitive) To lay or put in any hollow place, or place of rest and security, surrounded or enclosed; to embed.
      • Wordsworth:
        Among all chains or clusters of mountains where large bodies of still water are bedded.
      • 2014 August 17, Jeff Howell, “Home improvements: Repairing and replacing floorboards [print version: Never buy anything from a salesman, 16 August 2014, p. P7]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Property):
        But I must warn you that chipboard floors are always likely to squeak. The material is still being used in new-builds, but developers now use adhesive to bed and joint it, rather than screws or nails. I suspect the adhesive will eventually embrittle and crack, resulting in the same squeaking problems as before.
    2. (transitive) To set in a soft matrix, as paving stones in sand, or tiles in cement.
    3. (transitive) To set out (plants) in a garden bed.
    4. (transitive) To dress or prepare the surface of (stone) so it can serve as a bed.
    5. (transitive) To lay flat; to lay in order; to place in a horizontal or recumbent position.
      • Shakespeare:
        bedded hair
    6. To settle, as machinery.

Derived terms

Translations

Statistics

Most common English words before 1923: copyright · 4 · late · #529: bed · living · view · although

Anagrams

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch bed.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /bɛt/

Noun

bed ‎(plural beddens)

  1. bed

Breton

Etymology

From Proto-Brythonic *bɨd, from Proto-Celtic *bitus.

Noun

bed m ‎(plural bedoù)

  1. world

Danish

Etymology 1

From German Beet ‎(“bed”).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /bed/, [b̥eð]

Noun

bed n (singular definite bedet, plural indefinite bede)

  1. bed (a garden plot)
Inflection

Etymology 2

See bide.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /beːd/, [b̥eðˀ]

Verb

bed

  1. past tense of bide

Etymology 3

See bede.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /beːd/, [b̥eðˀ]

Verb

bed

  1. imperative of bede

Dutch

Pronunciation

  • Rhymes: -ɛt
  • IPA(key): /bɛt/

Etymology

From Middle Dutch bedde, from Old Dutch *beddi, from Proto-Germanic *badją. Compare Low German Bedd, German Bett, West Frisian bêd, English bed, Swedish bädd.

Noun

bed n ‎(plural bedden, diminutive bedje n)

  1. bed

Derived terms

Kriol

Etymology 1

From English bird.

Noun

bed

  1. bird

Etymology 2

From English bed.

Noun

bed

  1. bed

Kurdish

Adjective

bed

  1. bad (not good)


This Kurdish entry was created from the translations listed at bad. It may be less reliable than other entries, and may be missing parts of speech or additional senses. Please also see bed in the Kurdish Wiktionary. This notice will be removed when the entry is checked. (more information) April 2008

Lojban

Rafsi

bed

  1. rafsi of bende.

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

bed

  1. imperative of bede

Old English

Noun

bed n

  1. Alternative form of bedd

Old Irish

Etymology 1

Verb

·bed

  1. third-person singular past subjunctive of at·tá
Alternative forms

Etymology 2

Verb

bed

  1. third-person singular past subjunctive of is
  2. third-person singular imperative of is
  3. second-person plural imperative of is
  4. third-person singular conditional relative of is
Alternative forms
  • (3 sg. past subj.; 3 sg. and 2 pl. imperative): bad

Old Saxon

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *badją ‎(“dug sleeping-place”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰedʰ- ‎(“to dig”). Cognate with Old Frisian bed, Old English bedd, Dutch bed, Old High German betti, Old Norse beðr, Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌳𐌹 ‎(badi). The Indo-European root is also the source of Ancient Greek βοθυρος ‎(bothuros, “pit”), Latin fossa ‎(“ditch”), Latvian bedre ‎(“hole”), Welsh bedd, Breton bez ‎(“grave”).

Noun

bed n

  1. bed
    • thena lefna lamon bārun mid is beddiu‎
      They were bearing the living lame man with his bed
      (Heliand, verse 2309)

Declension

Descendants

  • Middle Low German: bedde
    • Low German: Bett
    • Dutch Low Saxon: bed

Swedish

Verb

bed ‎(contracted be)

  1. imperative of bedja.

Volapük

Noun

bed ‎(plural beds)

  1. bed

Declension

Etymology

From Middle English bed, bedde, from Old English bedd ‎(“bed, couch, resting-place; garden-bed, plot”), from Proto-Germanic *badją ‎(“plot, grave, resting-place, bed”), perhaps (if originally "dug sleeping-place") from Proto-Indo-European *bʰedʰ- ‎(“to dig”). Cognate with Scots bed, bede ‎(“bed”), North Frisian baad, beed ‎(“bed”), West Frisian bêd ‎(“bed”), Low German Bedd, Dutch bed ‎(“bed”), German Bett ‎(“bed”), Danish bed, Swedish bädd ‎(“bed”), Icelandic beður ‎(“bed”), and (through Proto-Indo-European, if the above etymology is correct) with Ancient Greek βοθυρος ‎(bothuros, “pit”), Latin fossa ‎(“ditch”), Latvian bedre ‎(“hole”), Welsh bedd ‎(“grave”), Breton bez ‎(“grave”); and probably also Russian бодать ‎(bodatʹ).

The traditional etymology as a derivation from the Proto-Indo-European verb for 'to dig' has been doubted, arguing that there are (allegedly) few, if any, cultures known to dig out beds, rather than to build "pads". However, what the Germanic word originally referred to is not known with precision, and it notably has the additional meaning "flower-bed, plot", which is preserved in English and several other modern Germanic languages, but present in older stages as well. Additionally, the term may have originally been used in the sense of a "burial plot" for laying those who were asleep in death, and from there extended also to symbolise a place where one slept in general (In Modern German, two separate words exist, Bett being the normal term, the rare variant Beet having been adopted for “flower-bed”). Perhaps the word originally referred to dug sleeping-places of animals, compare (with the inverse semantic development) lair from Old English leġer ‎(“couch, bed”).

Pronunciation

  • (UK, US) IPA(key): /bɛːd/
  • (Australia) IPA(key): /bed/
  • Rhymes: -ɛd

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