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Definition bed

Etymology

From Middle English bed, bedde, from Old English bedd (“bed, couch, resting-place; garden-bed, plot”), from Proto-Germanic *badj? (“plot, grave, resting-place, bed”), perhaps (if originally "dug sleeping-place") from Proto-Indo-European *b?ed?- (“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 ??????? (bothuros, “pit”), Latin fossa (“ditch”), Latvian bedre (“hole”), Welsh bedd (“grave”), Breton bez (“grave”); and probably also Russian ?????? (bodat?).

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 le?er (“couch, bed”).

Noun

bed (plural beds)

1. A piece of furniture, usually flat and soft, on which to rest or sleep.
   1. A prepared spot in which to spend the night.
   2. (usually after a preposition) One's place of sleep or rest.
   3. (uncountable, usually after a preposition) Sleep; rest; getting to sleep.
   4. (uncountable, usually after a preposition) The time for going to sleep or resting in bed; bedtime.
   5. (uncountable) Time spent in a bed.
   6. (figuratively) Marriage.
   7. (figuratively, uncountable) Sexual activity.
2. A place, or flat surface or layer, on which something else rests or is laid.
   1. The bottom of a body of water, such as an ocean, sea, lake, or river. [from later 16c.]
   2. An area where a large number of oysters, mussels, other sessile shellfish, or a large amount of seaweed is found.
   3. A garden plot.
   4. A foundation or supporting surface formed of a fluid.
   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.
   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. (computing) The flat surface of a scanner on which a document is placed to be scanned.
   10. A piece of music, normally instrumental, over which a radio DJ talks.
   11. (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.
   4. (masonry) The lower surface of a brick, slate, or tile.
   5. (masonry) A course of stone or brick in a wall.

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. (intransitive) To go to bed. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
   2. (transitive) To place in a bed.
   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, intransitive) 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.
   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.
   6. To settle, as machinery.

Results 429 Words with the letters BED

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