— bedless , adj. — bedlike , adj.
/bed/ , n. , v. , bedded, bedding .
n.
1. a piece of furniture upon which or within which a person sleeps, rests, or stays when not well.
2. the mattress and bedclothes together with the bedstead of a bed.
3. the bedstead alone.
4. the act of or time for sleeping: Now for a cup of cocoa and then bed.
5. the use of a bed for the night; lodging: I reserved a bed at the old inn.
6. the marital relationship.
7. any resting place: making his bed under a tree.
8. something resembling a bed in form or position.
9. a piece or area of ground in a garden or lawn in which plants are grown.
10. an area in a greenhouse in which plants are grown.
11. the plants in such areas.
12. the bottom of a lake, river, sea, or other body of water.
13. a piece or part forming a foundation or base.
14. a layer of rock; a stratum.
15. a foundation surface of earth or rock supporting a track, pavement, or the like: a gravel bed for the roadway.
16. Building Trades.
a. the underside of a stone, brick, slate, tile, etc., laid in position.
b. the upper side of a stone laid in position.
c. the layer of mortar in which a brick, stone, etc., is laid.
d. the natural stratification of a stone: a stone laid on bed.
17. Furniture. skirt (def. 6b).
18. the flat surface in a printing press on which the form of type is laid.
19. Transp. the body or, sometimes, the floor or bottom of a truck or trailer.
20. Chem. a compact mass of a substance functioning in a reaction as a catalyst or reactant.
21. Sports.
a. the canvas surface of a trampoline.
b. the smooth, wooden floor of a bowling alley.
c. the slate surface of a billiard table to which the cloth is fastened.
22. Zool. flesh enveloping the base of a claw, esp. the germinative layer beneath the claw.
23. Also called mock, mock mold . Shipbuilding. a shaped steel pattern upon which furnaced plates for the hull of a vessel are hammered to shape.
24. See bed and board .
25. get up on the wrong side of the bed , to be irritable or bad-tempered from the start of a day: Never try to reason with him when he's gotten up on the wrong side of the bed.
26. go to bed ,
a. to retire, esp. for the night.
b. to engage in sexual relations.
27. go to bed with , to have sexual intercourse with.
28. in bed ,
a. beneath the covers of a bed.
b. engaged in sexual intercourse.
29. jump or get into bed with , to form a close, often temporary, alliance, usually with an unlikely ally: Industry was charged with jumping into bed with labor on the issue.
30. make a bed , to fit a bed with sheets and blankets.
31. make one's bed , to be responsible for one's own actions and their results: You've made your bed - now lie in it.
32. put to bed ,
a. to help (a child, invalid, etc.) go to bed.
b. Printing. to lock up (forms) in a press in preparation for printing.
c. to work on the preparation of (an edition of a newspaper, periodical, etc.) up to the time of going to press.
v.t.
33. to provide with a bed.
34. to put to bed.
35. Hort. to plant in or as in a bed.
36. to lay flat.
37. to place in a bed or layer: to bed oysters.
38. to embed, as in a substance: bedding the flagstones in concrete.
39. to take or accompany to bed for purposes of sexual intercourse.
v.i.
40. to have sleeping accommodations: He says we can bed there for the night.
41. Geol. to form a compact layer or stratum.
42. (of a metal structural part) to lie flat or close against another part.
43. Archaic. to go to bed.
44. bed down ,
a. to make a bed for (a person, animal, etc.).
b. to retire to bed: They put out the fire and decided to bed down for the night.
[ bef. 1000; ME; OE bedd; c. OFris, D bed, OS bed ( de ), OHG betti (G Bett ), Goth badi badja n (neut.); akin to L fodere to dig, OCS bodo, Lith bedù I pierce, Welsh bedd a grave; presumably a bed was dug out in the ground ]
Syn. 14. band, belt, seam, lode.