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