BED

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.

A plat or level piece of ground in a garden, usually a little raised above the adjoining ground. "Beds of hyacinth and roses." Milton.

A mass or heap of anything arranged like a bed; as, a bed of ashes or coals.

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.

A layer or seam, or a horizontal stratum between layers; as, a bed of coal, iron, etc.

See Gun carriage, and Mortar bed.

The horizontal surface of a building stone; as, the upper and lower beds.

A course of stone or brick in a wall.

The place or material in which a block or brick is laid.

The lower surface of a brick, slate, or tile. Knight.

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.

The superficial earthwork, or ballast, of a railroad.

The flat part of the press, on which the form is laid.

To place in a bed. [Obs.] Bacon.

To make partaker of one's bed; to cohabit with. I'll to the Tuscan wars, and never bed her. Shak.

To furnish with a bed or bedding.

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.

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.

To dress or prepare the surface of stone) so as to serve as a bed.

To lay flat; to lay in order; to place in a horizontal or recumbent position. "Bedded hair." Shak.

To go to bed; to cohabit. If he be married, and bed with his wife. Wiseman.