Bĕd1, n.
[A-S. bed, bedd, O. S. bed, gen. beddes, D. bed, bedde, Icel. bed, Dan. bed, Sw. bädd, Goth. badi, O. H. Ger. betti, petti, M. H. Ger. bette, N. H. Ger. bett, bette, bed, and beet, with the sense of No. 3.]
Sense 1. An article of furniture to sleep or take rest on; — usually a sack filled with some soft material, in distinction from the bedstead or framework on which it is placed.
Sense 2. Matrimonial connection; marriage; lawful cohabitation.
George, the eldest son of his second bed. Clarendon.
Sense 3. A plat or level piece of ground in a garden, usually a little raised above the adjoining ground. “Beds of hyacinths and roses.” Milton.
Sense 4. The bottom of a river or other stream, or of any body of water.
So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed. Milton.
Sense 5. (Geol.) A layer or seam, or a horizontal mass between layers; a stratum; as, a bed of coal, iron, &c. Dana.
Sense 6. (Gun.) A frame of timber suitably hollowed and arranged for supporting a gun or a mortar; a gun-carriage; a mortar-bed. [Obs.] See GUN-CARRIAGE, and MORTAR-BED.
Sense 7. (Masonry.) The horizontal surface on which bricks, stones, &c., lie.
Sense 8. (Mach.) The foundation or more solid and fixed part or framing of a machine; as, the bed of an engine; a bed-plate, or bed-piece.
Sense 9. The superficial earthwork, or ballast of a railroad. Gwilt.
Bed of justice (Fr. Hist.), a visit of the king to a refractory parliament for the purpose of causing his decrees to be registered; — so called from his occupying the throne (called lit. bed) on such occasions. Brande. — To be brought to bed, to be delivered of a child; — often followed by of; as, to be brought to bed of a son. — To make the bed, to arrange it, or put it in order. — To put to bed, to deliver of a child. — From bed and board (Law), a phrase applied to a separation by partial divorce of man and wife, without dissolving the bands of matrimony. In this case the wife has a suitable maintenance out of her husband's estate, called alimony. Blackstone.