• | 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. |
• | (Used as the symbol of matrimony) Marriage. |
• | A plat or level piece of ground in a garden, usually a little
raised above the adjoining ground. |
• | 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. |
• | 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. |
• | 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. |
• | To make partaker of one's bed; to cohabit with. |
• | 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. |
• | 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. |
• | To go to bed; to cohabit. |