bed

English Online Dictionary. What means bed‎? What does bed mean?

English

Etymology

From Middle English bed, bedde, from Old English bedd, from Proto-West Germanic *badi, from Proto-Germanic *badją (“resting-place, plot of ground”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /bɛd/
• (African-American Vernacular, some speakers) IPA^(key): [beː]
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /bed/
• Rhymes: -ɛd

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. (figurative) Marriage.
   7. (figurative, uncountable) Sexual activity.

   8. Clipping of bedroom.

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 16^thc.]

   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.
   7. The platform of a truck, trailer, wagon, railcar, or other vehicle that supports the load to be hauled.

      Synonym: tray

      Hyponym: truckbed

   8. A shaped piece of timber to hold a cask clear of a ship’s floor; a pallet.
   9. (printing, dated) The flat part of the press, on which the form is laid.
   10. (computing) The flat surface of a scanner on which a document is placed to be scanned.
   11. A piece of music, normally instrumental, over which a radio DJ talks.
   12. (darts) Any of the sections of a dartboard with a point value, delimited by a wire.
   13. (trampoline) The taut surface of a trampoline.
3. (heading) A horizontal 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.

      Synonyms: layer, stratum

   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.

Usage notes

To prepare a bed (in the sense of sleeping furniture) is usually to make the bed, or (Southern US) to spread the bed, the verb spread probably having been developed from bedspread.

Like many nouns denoting places where people spend time, bed requires no article after certain prepositions: hence in bed (“lying in a bed”), go to bed (“get into a bed”), and so on. The forms in a bed, etc. do exist, but tend to imply mere presence in the bed, without it being for the purpose of sleep.

See also Appendix:Collocations of do, have, make, and take.

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Chichewa: bedi
• → Chuukese: pet
• → Esperanto: bedo
• → Japanese: ベッド (beddo)

Translations

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; to put oneself to sleep.

   2. (transitive) To place in a bed.
   3. (transitive) To furnish with a bed or bedding.
   4. (transitive, intransitive) To have sex (with). [from early 14th c.]

      Synonyms: coitize, go to bed with, sleep with; see also Thesaurus:copulate with
   5. (intransitive, hunting) Of large game animals: to be at rest.
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.
      • 1810/1835, William Wordsworth, Guide to the Lakes

        Among all chains or clusters of mountains where large bodies of still water are bedded.
   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.

Derived terms

• bed down
• embed

Translations

References

Further reading

• bed on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• BDE, DBE, DEB, Deb, Deb., EBD, Edb., deb

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch bed, from Middle Dutch bedde, from Old Dutch bedde, from Proto-Germanic *badją.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɛt/

Noun

bed (plural beddens, diminutive bedjie)

1. bed

   Synonym: kooi

Australian Kriol

Etymology 1

From English bird.

Noun

bed

1. bird

Etymology 2

From English bed.

Noun

bed

1. bed

Breton

Alternative forms

• béd (Skolveurieg)

Etymology

From Proto-Brythonic *bɨd, from Proto-Celtic *bitus. Cognates include Welsh byd and Cornish bys.

Noun

bed m (plural bedoù)

1. world
2. universe

Mutation

References

• Ian Press (1986) A grammar of modern Breton, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 322

Danish

Etymology 1

From German Beet (“bed for plants”), originally the same word as Bett (“bed for sleeping”), from Proto-Germanic *badją, cognate with English bed and Swedish bädd.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈb̥eð]

Noun

bed n (singular definite bedet, plural indefinite bede)

1. bed (a garden plot)

Inflection

Etymology 2

From Old Norse beit f (“pasturage”), Old Norse beita f (“bait”), from Proto-Germanic *baitō (“food, bait”), cognate with German Beize (“mordant”) (whence Danish bejdse).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈb̥eˀð], [ˈb̥eðˀ]

Noun

bed (definitive plural bedene)

1. (obsolete) pasturage

   only in the expression: gå nogen i bedene "poach on someone's preserves"

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈb̥eˀð], [ˈb̥eðˀ]

Verb

bed

1. past of bide

Etymology 4

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈb̥eˀ], (solemnly) IPA^(key): [ˈb̥eˀð], [ˈb̥eðˀ]

Verb

bed

1. imperative of bede

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch bedde, from Old Dutch bedde, from Proto-West Germanic *badi, from Proto-Germanic *badją.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɛt/
• Hyphenation: bed
• Rhymes: -ɛt

Noun

bed n (plural bedden, diminutive bedje n)

1. bed (furniture for sleeping)

   Ze kocht een nieuw bed voor haar nieuwe appartement. ― She bought a new bed for her new apartment.

   Ik wil vroeg naar bed gaan vanavond. ― I want to go to bed early tonight.

   Dit bed is zo comfortabel dat ik er de hele dag in zou kunnen blijven. ― This bed is so comfortable, I could stay in it all day.

2. (garden, agriculture) patch, bed
3. layer, often a substratum
4. bed of a body of water

Derived terms

Descendants

• Afrikaans: bed
• Berbice Creole Dutch: bedi
• Negerhollands: bet, bedi, bere, bedde
  • → Virgin Islands Creole: bedi (archaic)
• Skepi Creole Dutch: bede
• → Caribbean Javanese: bèt
• →? Mohegan-Pequot: beed
• → Papiamentu: bèt, bèchi, bèrchi, bed
• → Saramaccan: bédi
• →? Sranan Tongo: bedi
  • → Caribbean Hindustani: bedi
  • → Caribbean Javanese: bèḍi
  • → Kari'na: bedi

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English bedd.

Noun

bed

1. bed

Descendants

• English: bed
• Scots: bed

Etymology 2

Noun

bed

1. Alternative form of bede

Northern Kurdish

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɛd

Adjective

bed

1. bad

Norwegian Bokmål

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /beːd/

Etymology 1

From Danish bed, from German Beet.

Noun

bed n (definite singular bedet, indefinite plural bed, definite plural beda or bedene)

1. (horticulture) a bed (for plants)

Derived terms

• blomsterbed

Etymology 2

Verb

bed

1. imperative of bede

References

• “bed” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology 1

From German Beet.

Noun

bed n (definite singular bedet, indefinite plural bed, definite plural beda)

1. (horticulture) a bed (for plants)

Derived terms

• blomsterbed

Etymology 2

Verb

bed

1. present tense of beda
2. imperative of beda

Etymology 3

From Old Norse beðr.

Noun

bed m (definite singular beden, indefinite plural bedar, definite plural bedane)

1. (pre-2012) alternative form of bedd

References

• “bed” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bed/

Noun

bed n

1. Alternative form of bedd

Old Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bʲeð/

Etymology 1

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

·bed

1. third-person singular past subjunctive of at·tá

Alternative forms

• ·beth

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Verb

bed

1. inflection of is:
   1. third-person singular past subjunctive
   2. third-person singular/second-person plural imperative
   3. third-person singular conditional relative

Alternative forms

• bad (3 sg. past subj.; 3 sg. and 2 pl. imperative)

Mutation

Old Saxon

Alternative forms

• bedd, beddi

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *badi, from Proto-Germanic *badją (“dug sleeping-place”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰedʰ- (“to dig”).

Cognate with Old Frisian bed, Old English bedd, Dutch bed, Old High German betti, Old Norse beðr, Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌳𐌹 (badi). The Indo-European root is also the source of Ancient Greek βοθυρος (bothuros, “pit”), Latin fossa (“ditch”), Latvian bedre (“hole”), Welsh bedd, Breton bez (“grave”).

Noun

bed n

1. bed

Declension

Descendants

• Middle Low German: bedde
  • Low German: Bett
    • Dutch Low Saxon: bedde
    • German Low German: Bedd
      • Plautdietsch: Bad, Bed
  • → Icelandic: beddi

Swedish

Verb

bed (contracted be)

1. imperative of bedja

Volapük

Etymology

Borrowed from English bed and German Bett.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bed/

Noun

bed (nominative plural beds)

1. bed

Declension