: the place or material in which a block or brick is laid
b
: the lower surface of a brick, slate, or tile
6
: a mass or heap resembling a bed
a bed of ashes
served on a bed of lettuce
7
: an open, usually rectangular cargo area or platform at the rear of truck
a pickup truck with a short bed
We loaded the equipment and put a cover over the truck bed.
8
music
a
: an instrumental or vocal track that is combined with other tracks to produce a musical composition
Turner gives the track an air of familiarity with his lead vocal, which sits atop an instrumental bed dominated by an infectious, sweeping string section.Music Week
b
: a musical soundtrack (as to a motion picture or television show)
As a video tribute … played on a projector screen, with a music bed complementing a montage of pictures from different stages of the players' lives, a mom admitted to having tears in her eyes. Joe Aguilar
She had gone to bed with a man she loved and had suffered the ultimate humiliation—rejection … Evelyn Anthony
in bed
: in the act of sexual intercourse
caught her husband and another woman in bed together
in/into bed with
informal
: in/into an improperly close relationship with
… he found himself in bed with those he used to see as the wrong kind of people … Ronald Radosh
The administration had gotten into bed with an obscure guerrilla army with which it had, in truth, few sympathies. Mark Dennis et al.
make one's bed and lie in it
—used to say that one is responsible for dealing with the problems that result from one's own bad decisions
Why should taxpayers have to cover for the foolish investments and risky deals financial fat cats made? Wall Street made its bed, the thinking goes, and now those executives should lie in it. — The Dallas Morning Star
Noun The room contains only a bed and a dresser. There are two beds in the hotel room. He lay in bed all morning. The blanket by the fireplace is the dog's bed. Her bed was a mound of soft pine needles. I'm planning on putting a bed of perennials in that corner of the yard. Verb He has fantasies about bedding a fashion model. the campers all bedded down for the night around 9:00 p.m. See More
Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
Standing technology has invaluable health benefits, like promoting good circulation to avoid blood clots and bed sores and reducing the risk of osteoporosis. Paul Amadeus Lane And Jim Meade, STAT, 16 Sep. 2022 The metrics are based on a county’s COVID-19 hospital bed use, COVID-19 hospital admissions and case rates for the virus over the past week. Alison Steinbach, The Arizona Republic, 14 Sep. 2022 Simple linens dress the bed and echo the colors and patterns in the area rug. Maria Sabella, Better Homes & Gardens, 14 Sep. 2022 Anchorage municipal hotel bed taxes for 2022 are on track to grow 20% from the year before, the group said. Alex Demarban, Anchorage Daily News, 14 Sep. 2022 Crews used a crane to move the dump truck bed away from the overpass. Mike Mavredakis, Hartford Courant, 14 Sep. 2022 The photo of the boy in the hospital bed is of a young man who was hit by a car in Grimsby, England, three months ago. Eleanor Mccrary, USA TODAY, 14 Sep. 2022 The styles include everything from bathmats and bed linens to floor poufs and wall art. Hannah Chubb, Peoplemag, 14 Sep. 2022 Migrants trapped inside the bed cover of a pickup truck. Gina Martinez, CBS News, 13 Sep. 2022
Verb
Washington plays Judith, a bride-to-be whose gay best friend (played by Jimmy Fowlie) tries to bed her fiancé and sabotage the wedding in order to keep Judith for himself. Naveen Kumar, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 Aug. 2022 The Warriors got a fly-out and strikeout before putting the Huskies to bed on a final fly-out. Evan Dudley, al, 19 May 2022 Visitors without sails to sleep under can bed down in atmospheric pensions like Opoa Beach Hotel, with just nine bungalows fronting a stunning beach on the island's southeast corner. Terry Ward, Travel + Leisure, 28 Mar. 2022 Deer and others bed down under them for warmth in winter and to stay cool in summer. From Usa Today Network And Wire Reports, USA TODAY, 18 Aug. 2021 At over 3,500 square feet, the room boasts a large, private lap pool, a sweeping terrace overlooking majestic rock formations; and, the star of the show, a sky lounge area where guests can bed down for the night under the clear Utah skies. Juliet Izon, CNN, 19 July 2021 The homeless sleep in churches, schools, or the homes of local good Samaritans, while others bed down outside.New York Times, 2 June 2021 Or make a reservation to bed down at the Glacier Point Ski Hut, a roughly ten-mile ski or snowshoe from Badger Pass. Shawnté Salabert, Outside Online, 22 Feb. 2021 Chacon—and many other gunsmiths—will bed a Ruger 10/22 for $100-$150, which is a helluva deal. Michael R. Shea, Field & Stream, 22 Feb. 2021 See More
Word History
Etymology
Noun
Middle English, going back to Old English bedd "sleeping place, plot of ground prepared for plants," going back to Germanic *badja- (whence Old Frisian bed "sleeping place," Old High German betti, Old Norse beðr "bolster, bedding," Gothic badi "sleeping place"), of uncertain origin
Note: Traditionally Germanic *badja- has been taken as a derivative of an Indo-European verbal base *bhodh-i- "poke, dig" (see fossil entry 1), on the assumption that a bed was originally a pit dug in the ground, though evidence that early Germanic or pre-Germanic peoples slept in pits seems to be lacking.
First Known Use
Noun
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a