bed / bed/ • n. 1. a piece of furniture for sleep or rest, typically a framework with a mattress and coverings: a large double bed she was in bed by nine getting out of bed is a real struggle. ∎  a bed and associated facilities making up a place for a patient in a hospital or for a guest at a hotel: a round of hospital staff layoffs and bed closings. ∎ inf. used with reference to a bed as the typical place for sexual activity: some men care very little about pleasing their partners in bed. 2. an area of ground, typically in a garden, where flowers and plants are grown: a bed of tulips. 3. a flat base or foundation on which something rests or is supported, in particular: ∎  the foundation of a road or railroad. ∎  the open part of a truck, wagon, or railroad car, where goods are carried. 4. a layer or pile of something, in particular: ∎  a layer of food on which other foods are served: the salad is served on a bed of raw spinach. ∎  a layer of rock or other geological material: a bed of clay. ∎  any mass or pile resembling a bed: pots steaming on the fragrant bed of coals. 5. the bottom of the sea or a lake or river: a riverbed. ∎  a place on the seabed where shellfish, esp. oysters or mussels, breed or are bred: mussel beds.• v. (bed·ded , bed·ding ) 1. [intr.] settle down to sleep or rest for the night, typically in an improvised place: he usually bedded down on newspapers in the church porch. ∎  (bed someone/something down) settle a person or animal down to sleep or rest for the night. 2. transfer (a plant) from a pot or seed tray to a garden plot: I bedded out these houseplants. 3. lay or arrange (something, esp. stone) in a layer.PHRASES: bed of nails a board with nails pointing out of it, as lain on by fakirs and ascetics. ∎ fig. a problematic or uncomfortable situation.bed of roses used in reference to a situation or activity that is comfortable or easy: farming is no bed of roses.get up on the wrong side of the bed start the day in a bad temper.in bed with inf. having sexual intercourse with: he found his wife in bed with one of the neighbors. ∎ fig. in undesirably close association with: these meetings with politicians put the gay movement in bed with the dreaded Establishment.make a bed fit a bed with sheets, blankets, and pillows.take to one's bed stay in bed because of illness.

Bed (Graham's Magnetic)

A magnetic contrivance, similar to the baquet, made use of by James Graham, eighteenth-century physician and magnetist of Edinburgh, Scotland. His entire house, which he dubbed the Temple of Hygeia and opened in 1779, was of great magnificence, especially the room with the magnetic bed. The bed itself rested on six transparent pillars; the mattresses were soaked with oriental perfumes; the bedclothes were of satin in tints of purple and sky blue. A healing stream of magnetism, as well as fragrant and strengthening medicines, were introduced into the sleeping apartment through glass tubes and cylinders. To these attractions were added the soft strains of hidden flutes, harmonicons, and a large organ. Use of this celestial couch was said to sooth shattered nerves and was allowed only to those who sent a written application to its owner and enclosed £50 sterling.

bed. Prepared horizontal surface with a layer of mortar on which bricks, stones, tiles, etc., lie; also the under-surface in contact with the mortar-layer. The bed-joint is therefore where those surfaces meet, and the term is also applied to the joints between the voussoirs of an arch. In Classical architecture the bed-moulding is part of the entablature, lying between the corona and the frieze, or any moulding over which any horizontal moulding projects.

bed In geology, a layer of sedimentary rock. Usually deposited in a broadly horizontal sheet, it underlies the surface material (regolith) except where regolith has been removed by erosion.

bed bed and breakfast sell (shares) after hours one evening and buy them back as soon as possible the following day, in order to establish a loss for tax purposes.
a bed of nails a problematic or uncomfortable situation. Originally, a board with nails pointing out of it, as lain on by Eastern fakirs and ascetics.
a bed of roses a situation that is comfortable or easy (often used in the negative).