BED


Meaning of BED in English

I. ˈbed noun

( -s )

Usage: often attributive

Etymology: Middle English, from Old English bedd; akin to Old High German betti bed, Old Norse bethr, Gothic badi bed, Latin fodere to dig, Lithuanian besti

1.

a. : a piece of furniture on or in which one may lie down and sleep often including bedstead, legs or supports, spring, mattress, and bedding

b.

(1) : a place of marital sex relations

(2) : marital relationship

dishonoring her bed with a lover

c. : any improvised place or arrangement for sleeping

hikers making their beds under the trees

d.

(1) : a place of procreation

(2) : marital union

the eldest son of his second bed — Edward Hyde

(3) : progeny

e. : situation or fact of being in bed : sleep , sleeping : time for sleeping

taking a walk before bed

f. : place of repose : repose

the bugle calling them from their beds

g. : a flat sack or mattress filled with some soft material in distinction from the bedstead on which it is placed

a feather bed

also : a mattress and bedclothes

h. : bedstead

i. : lodging for the night with accommodations for sleeping

getting a bed at the inn

j. : a measure of the equipment and services needed in a hospital to care for one hospitalized patient or in a hotel to care for one guest

a new wing of 200 beds

2. : a flat or level surface: as

a.

(1) : a plot in a garden or lawn often a little raised above the adjoining ground : the plants grown in such plot ; also : hotbed

(2) : an area in a greenhouse or conservatory in which plants are grown

(3) : a cluster or concentration of plants

a bed of ferns

b. : the bottom of a watercourse or of any other body of water ; especially : an area of sea bottom supporting a heavy growth of a particular kind of organism

a kelp bed

an oyster bed

c. : the surface of a bowling alley along which the ball is bowled

d. : the surface on which the cloth of a billiard table is fastened

e. : the canvas surface of a trampoline upon which a gymnast performs

3. : a grave as a place of last sleep

digging out his narrow bed

4. : support , rest :

a. : the supporting part of a gun carriage

b.

(1) : an extended base : matrix

(2) : a layer of specialized or altered tissue ; often : such a layer or zone separating dissimilar structures

a bed of vigorous granulation tissue is essential for a satisfactory skin graft

— see vascular bed

c. : a framework or support on or in which a piece of machining or carpentry work rests

d. : the cradle of a ship on the stocks

e. : a foundation for a machine or apparatus

the bed of an engine

: the rigid part of a machine serving to support or secure

f. : the superficial earthwork that supports the ballast and track of a railroad

g. : the body, box, or supporting frame of a vehicle (as a wagon, truck, or trailer) ; sometimes : the floor or bottom of a truck or trailer

h. : the inclined piece of a carpenter's plane against which the plane iron bears

i. : the lower die of a punching machine

j. : the surface on which the printing form is locked on a flatbed press

k. or bed ladder : the lower section of an aerial ladder

l. : a drawer or layer supporting a typewriter in an office desk

m. : the base of a bellows camera usually including the focusing guide rails

5. : a nest of small animals crowded together

a bed of snakes

6. : a layer especially if placed with something above

salad served on a bed of lettuce

as

a. : a rock stratum ; especially : a bedding plane of stratified rock

b.

(1) : a horizontal surface of a brick or stone in position

in the upper bed

(2) : a course of stone or brick in a wall

(3) : the place or material in which a block or brick is laid

(4) : the lower surface of a brick, slate, or tile

(5) : bed joint

c. : a layer containing a concentration of paleontological or anthropological evidence (as bones)

d. : filter bed

e. : fire bed

7. : the place where an animal sleeps ; especially : a place arranged or covered for a domestic or farm animal to sleep

8.

a. : a mass or heap felt to resemble a bed

a bed of ashes

the judging tent floor was a deep bed of sawdust — Christopher Rand

b. : a mass of solid catalyst or solid chemical reactant that may be either in a fixed state or in a moving fluidized state

c. : a stack of raw hides or skins spread flat and salted for curing and preserving

9.

a. : a water solution of gum tragacanth used as a couch in the process of marbling book edges

b. : the impression base used by bookbinders in stamping, graining, or embossing covers or materials

II. verb

( bedded ; bedded ; bedding ; beds )

Etymology: Middle English bedden, beddien, from Old English beddian, from bedd bed

transitive verb

1.

a. : to furnish with a bed : accommodate with sleeping quarters

the innkeeper was unable to bed all the guests

— sometimes used with down

a garrison of about seventy, which the captain bedded down in the ground floor — Earle Birney

b. : to put to bed

getting the children bedded

c. : to put (a couple) to bed — used with the implication that sex relations will ensue

d. : to furnish (an animal) with a bed or bedding : settle (an animal) in sleeping quarters

bedding the mare — Ellen Glasgow

— often used with down

bed down the cattle — Andy Adams

e. : to take to bed for sexual intercourse : have sex relations with

when he had bedded his wife and … had left her bed — B.A.Williams

f. : to put to bed with an illness — used mostly in the passive

bedded for a week with influenza

2.

a. : embed : place, sink, bury, or cover over securely in an enclosed place or situation

the tremendous mortar … was bedded in the great timbers of her foredeck — Frank Yerby

edges bedded in rabbets

b. : to plant or arrange in beds : set or cover especially in a bed of soft earth

bedding roots in mold

bed out geraniums

— often used with up, down, or out

c. : base , establish

d. : to fit (a rifle barrel) to a fore-end

3.

a. : to lay or embed in a layer : lay flat

bedding bricks in the mortar

bedding metal plates together to test them

b. : to dress the bearing surface of a brick or stone block

c. : to form (soil) into a bed or ridge (as for cotton) by plowing two or more furrows together — often used with up

d. : to spread or strew in a layer

the floor of the pen being bedded with straw

e. : to prepare the ground about a tree by leveling and other means so as to lessen the chances of its shattering when felled

f. : to lay, place, or set (something) in a plastic bedding material (as masonry units in mortar or glass in putty)

4. : to place (oysters) in beds for setting

intransitive verb

1.

a. : to find or make sleeping accommodations — often used with down

bedding down in a sleeping bag — Hamilton Basso

halted beside a haystack and told to bed down — E.J.Kahn

b. : to go to bed with opportunity for sex relations or in order to have sex relations : to have coition

the couple bedded that night at the inn

— used with with, down with, up with

man may bed with slaves, concubines, mistresses — H.M.Parshley

c. of an animal : to make its bed or lair — often used with down

the deer bedded down on the slope

d. : to go to bed to sleep : retire

accustomed to bed early

e. : to burrow into a mud bottom

the side of the lake where the eels bed

2. : to form a layer usually compact — often used with down

litter in the hen coop beds down if it is not raked

3. : to lie or be placed on or as if on a bed in a mechanical operation : lie flat or flush against another part

countersunk rivets bed well against a flat plate

Webster's New International English Dictionary.      Новый международный словарь английского языка Webster.