Bed. n.s. [bed, Sax.]
- Something made to sleep on:
Lying not erect, but hollow, which is in the making of the bed; or with the legs gathered up, which is in the posture of the body, is the more wholsome. Bacon's Nat. Hist. № 738.
Rigour now is gone to bed,
And advice with scrupulous head. Milton.Those houses then were caves, or homely sheds,
With twining oziers fenc'd, and moss their beds. Dryden. - Lodging; the convenience of a place to sleep in.
On my knees I beg,
That you'll vouchsafe me, raiment, bed, and food. Shakesp. King. Lear. - Marriage.
George, the eldest son of this second bed, was, after the death of his father, by the singular care and affection of his mother, well brought up. Clarendon.
- Bank of earth raised in a garden.
Herbs will be tenderer and fairer, if you take them out of beds, when they are newly come up, and remove them into pots, with better earth. Bacon's Nat. Hist. № 459.
- The channel of a river, or any hollow.
So high as heav'd the tumid hills, so low
Down sunk a hollow bottom, broad, and deep,
Capacious bed of waters. Milt. Par. Lost, b. vii. l. 288.The great magazine for all kinds of treasure is supposed to be the bed of the Tiber. We may be sure, when the Romans lay under the apprehensions of seeing their city sacked by a barbarous enemy, that they would take care to bestow such of their riches that way, as could best bear the water. Addison.
- The place where any thing is generated, or reposited.
See hoary Albula's infected tide
O'er the warm bed of smoaking sulphur glide. Addison. - A layer; a stratum; a body spread over another.
I see no reason, but the surface of the land should be as regular as that of the water, in the first production of it; and the strata, or beds within, lie as even. Burnet's Theory.
- To bring to Bed. To deliver a child. It is often used with the particle of; as, she was brought to bed of a daughter.
Ten months after Florimel happen'd to wed,
And was brought in a laudable manner to bed. Prior. - To make the Bed. To put the bed in order after it has been used.
I keep his house, and I wash, wring, brew, bake, scour, dress meat, and make the beds, and so all myself. Shakesp. Merry Wives of Windsor.
