bed Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a piece of furniture that provides a place to sleep
    • he sat on the edge of the bed
    • the room had only a bed and chair
  2. noun a plot of ground in which plants are growing
    • the gardener planted a bed of roses
  3. noun a depression forming the ground under a body of water
    bottom.
    • he searched for treasure on the ocean bed
  4. noun (geology) a stratum of rock (especially sedimentary rock)
    • they found a bed of sandstone
  5. noun a stratum of ore or coal thick enough to be mined with profit
    seam.
    • he worked in the coal beds
  6. noun single thickness of usually some homogeneous substance
    layer.
    • slices of hard-boiled egg on a bed of spinach
  7. noun the flat surface of a printing press on which the type form is laid in the last stage of producing a newspaper or magazine or book etc.
  8. noun a foundation of earth or rock supporting a road or railroad track
    • the track bed had washed away
  9. verb furnish with a bed
    • The inn keeper could bed all the new arrivals
  10. verb place (plants) in a prepared bed of soil
  11. verb put to bed
    • The children were bedded at ten o'clock
  12. verb have sexual intercourse with
    love; fuck; sleep with; have it away; screw; have intercourse; get it on; lie with; hump; make love; make out; get laid; have a go at it; bonk; eff; have sex; jazz; be intimate; know; have it off; bang; do it; roll in the hay; sleep together.
    • This student sleeps with everyone in her dorm
    • Adam knew Eve
    • Were you ever intimate with this man?
  13. verb prepare for sleep
    retire; sack out; hit the sack; kip down; turn in; go to bed; go to sleep; crawl in; hit the hay.
    • I usually turn in at midnight
    • He goes to bed at the crack of dawn

WordNet

Bed noun
Etymology
AS. bed, bedd; akin to OS. bed, D. bed, bedde, Icel. ber, Dan. bed, Sw. bädd, Goth. badi, OHG. betti, G. bett, bette, bed, beet a plat of ground; all of uncertain origin.
Definitions
  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. Shak.
    In bed he slept not for my urging it. Shak.
  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 transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Bedded; present participle & verbal noun Bedding
Definitions
  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. Shak.
  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 intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To go to bed; to cohabit.
    If he be married, and bed with his wife. Wiseman.

Webster 1913