different between bed vs unbed

English

Etymology

From Middle English bed, bedde, from Old English bedd (“bed, couch, resting-place; garden-bed, plot”), from Proto-Germanic *badj? (“plot, grave, resting-place, bed”), perhaps (if originally "dug sleeping-place") from Proto-Indo-European *b?ed?- (“to dig”). Cognate with Scots bed, bede (“bed”), North Frisian baad, beed (“bed”), West Frisian bêd (“bed”), Low German Bedd, Dutch bed (“bed”), German Bett (“bed”), Danish bed, Swedish bädd (“bed”), Icelandic beður (“bed”), and (through Proto-Indo-European, if the above etymology is correct) with Ancient Greek ??????? (bothuros, “pit”), Latin fossa (“ditch”), Latvian bedre (“hole”), Welsh bedd (“grave”), Breton bez (“grave”); and probably also Russian ?????? (bodat?, “to butt, to gore”).

The traditional etymology as a derivation from the Proto-Indo-European verb for 'to dig' has been doubted, arguing that there are (allegedly) few, if any, cultures known to dig out beds, rather than to build "pads". However, what the Germanic word originally referred to is not known with precision, and it notably has the additional meaning "flower-bed, plot", which is preserved in English and several other modern Germanic languages, but present in older stages as well. Additionally, the term may have originally been used in the sense of a "burial plot" for laying those who were asleep in death, and from there extended also to symbolise a place where one slept in general (In Modern German, two separate words exist, Bett being the normal term, the rare variant Beet having been adopted for “flower-bed”). Perhaps the word originally referred to dug sleeping-places of animals, compare (with the inverse semantic development) lair from Old English le?er (“couch, bed”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /b?d/
• (AAVE, some speakers) IPA^(key): [be?]
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /bed/
• Rhymes: -?d

Noun

bed (plural beds)

1. A piece of furniture, usually flat and soft, on which to rest or sleep.
   1. A prepared spot in which to spend the night.

   2. (usually after a preposition) One's place of sleep or rest.

   3. (uncountable, usually after a preposition) Sleep; rest; getting to sleep.

   4. (uncountable, usually after a preposition) The time for going to sleep or resting in bed; bedtime.

   5. (uncountable) Time spent in a bed.
   6. (figuratively) Marriage.

      • George, the eldest son of his second bed.

   7. (figuratively, uncountable) Sexual activity.

2. A place, or flat surface or layer, on which something else rests or is laid.
   1. The bottom of a body of water, such as an ocean, sea, lake, or river. [from later 16^thc.]

   2. An area where a large number of oysters, mussels, other sessile shellfish, or a large amount of seaweed is found.
      • 1941, Emily Carr, Klee Wyck, Chapter 18, [1]

        I knew that there were kelp beds and reefs which could rip the bottoms from boats down in Skedans Bay.

   3. A garden plot.

      • Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume; she saw the tufted lilacs sway in the wind, and the streamers of mauve-tinted wistaria swinging, all a-glisten with golden bees; she saw a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagers flashing like scarlet flames athwart the pines.

   4. A foundation or supporting surface formed of a fluid.

   5. The superficial earthwork, or ballast, of a railroad.
   7. The platform of a truck, trailer, railcar, or other vehicle that supports the load to be hauled.

      Synonym: tray

   8. A shaped piece of timber to hold a cask clear of a ship’s floor; a pallet.
   9. (printing, dated) The flat part of the press, on which the form is laid.
   10. (computing) The flat surface of a scanner on which a document is placed to be scanned.
   11. A piece of music, normally instrumental, over which a radio DJ talks.
   12. (darts) Any of the sections of a dartboard with a point value, delimited by a wire.
   13. (trampoline) The taut surface of a trampoline.
3. (heading) A layer or surface.
   1. A deposit of ore, coal, etc.
   2. (geology) The smallest division of a geologic formation or stratigraphic rock series marked by well-defined divisional planes (bedding planes) separating it from layers above and below.

      Synonyms: layer, stratum

   3. (masonry) The horizontal surface of a building stone.

   4. (masonry) The lower surface of a brick, slate, or tile.

      (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)

   5. (masonry) A course of stone or brick in a wall.

Usage notes

Sense 1. To prepare a bed is usually to "make" the bed, or (US, Southern) to "spread" the bed, the verb spread probably having been developed from bedspread.Like many nouns denoting places where people spend time, bed requires no article after certain prepositions: hence in bed (“lying in a bed”), go to bed (“get into a bed”), and so on. The forms in a bed, etc. do exist, but tend to imply mere presence in the bed, without it being for the purpose of sleep.

See also Appendix:Collocations of do, have, make, and take

Derived terms

Descendants

• Chichewa: bedi
• Chuukese: pet
• Japanese: ??? (beddo)

Translations

See bed/translations § Noun.

Verb

bed (third-person singular simple present beds, present participle bedding, simple past and past participle bedded)

1. Senses relating to a bed as a place for resting or sleeping.
   1. (intransitive) To go to bed.
   2. (transitive) To place in a bed.

      • For she was not only publicly contracted, but stated as a bride, and solemnly bedded, and after she was laid, there came in Maximilian's ambassador with letters of procuration

   3. To put oneself to sleep. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
   4. (transitive) To furnish with a bed or bedding.
   5. (transitive, intransitive) To have sexual intercourse with. [from early 14th c.]

      Synonyms: coitize, go to bed with, sleep with; see also Thesaurus:copulate with

      • 1730, William Forbes, The Institutes of the Law of Scotland (page 121)

        And he who lies with another Man's Wife after she is married, even before her Husband had bedded with her, is guilty of Adultery, […]

2. Senses relating to a bed as a place or layer on which something else rests or is laid.
   1. (transitive) To lay or put in any hollow place, or place of rest and security, surrounded or enclosed; to embed.
      • 1810/1835, William Wordsworth, Guide to the Lakes

        Among all chains or clusters of mountains where large bodies of still water are bedded.
   2. (transitive) To set in a soft matrix, as paving stones in sand, or tiles in cement.
   3. (transitive) To set out (plants) in a garden bed.
   4. (transitive) To dress or prepare the surface of (stone) so it can serve as a bed.
   5. (transitive) To lay flat; to lay in order; to place in a horizontal or recumbent position.
   6. To settle, as machinery.

Derived terms

• bed down
• embed

Translations

See bed/translations § Verb.

Further reading

• bed on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• BDE, DBE, DEB, Deb, Deb., EBD, Edb., deb

Afrikaans

Etymology

From Dutch bed, from Middle Dutch bedde, from Old Dutch bedde, from Proto-Germanic *badj?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b?t/

Noun

bed (plural beddens, diminutive bedjie)

1. bed

   Synonym: kooi

Breton

Alternative forms

• béd (Skolveurieg)

Etymology

From Proto-Brythonic *b?d, from Proto-Celtic *bitus. Cognates include Welsh byd and Cornish bys.

Noun

bed m (plural bedoù)

1. world
2. universe

Mutation

References

• Ian Press (1986) A grammar of modern Breton, Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, ?ISBN, page 322

Danish

Etymology 1

From German Beet (“bed for plants”), originally the same word as Bett (“bed for sleeping”), from Proto-Germanic *badj?, cognate with English bed and Swedish bädd.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?b?eð]

Noun

bed n (singular definite bedet, plural indefinite bede)

1. bed (a garden plot)

Inflection

Etymology 2

From Old Norse beit f (“pasturage”), Old Norse beita f (“bait”), from Proto-Germanic *bait? (“food, bait”), cognate with German Beize (“mordant”) (whence Danish bejdse).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?b?e?ð], [?b?eð?]

Noun

bed (definitive plural bedene)

1. (obsolete) pasturage

   only in the expression: gå nogen i bedene "poach on someone's preserves"

Etymology 3

See the etymology of the main entry.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?b?e?ð], [?b?eð?]

Verb

bed

1. past tense of bide

Etymology 4

See the etymology of the main entry.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?b?e?], (solemnly) IPA^(key): [?b?e?ð], [?b?eð?]

Verb

bed

1. imperative of bede

Dutch

Etymology

From Middle Dutch bedde, from Old Dutch bedde, from Proto-Germanic *badj?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b?t/
• Hyphenation: bed
• Rhymes: -?t

Noun

bed n (plural bedden, diminutive bedje n)

1. bed (furniture for sleeping)
2. (garden, agriculture) patch, bed
3. layer, often a substratum
4. bed of a body of water
   • 1950, Willy van der Heide, Drie jongens op een onbewoond eiland, Stenvert.

     Op een gegeven ogenblik stieten ze op een uitgedroogde beekbedding; het bed van de beek was naakte lava.

Derived terms

Descendants

• Afrikaans: bed

Kriol

Etymology 1

From English bird.

Noun

bed

1. bird

Etymology 2

From English bed.

Noun

bed

1. bed

Northern Kurdish

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?d

Adjective

bed

1. bad

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology 1

From German Beet

Noun

bed n (definite singular bedet, indefinite plural bed, definite plural beda or bedene)

1. (horticulture) a bed (for plants)

Derived terms

• blomsterbed

Etymology 2

Verb

bed

1. imperative of bede

References

• “bed” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology 1

From German Beet.

Noun

bed n (definite singular bedet, indefinite plural bed, definite plural beda)

1. (horticulture) a bed (for plants)

Derived terms

• blomsterbed

Etymology 2

Verb

bed

1. present tense of beda
2. imperative of beda

Etymology 3

From Old Norse beðr.

Noun

bed m (definite singular beden, indefinite plural bedar, definite plural bedane)

1. form removed with the spelling reform of 2012; superseded by bedd

References

• “bed” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bed/

Noun

bed n

1. Alternative form of bedd

Old Irish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /b?eð/

Etymology 1

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

·bed

1. third-person singular past subjunctive of at·tá

Alternative forms

• ·beth

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the main entry.

Verb

bed

1. inflection of is:
   1. third-person singular past subjunctive
   2. third-person singular/second-person plural imperative
   3. third-person singular conditional relative

Alternative forms

• bad (3 sg. past subj.; 3 sg. and 2 pl. imperative)

Mutation

Old Saxon

Alternative forms

• beddi

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *badj? (“dug sleeping-place”), from Proto-Indo-European *b?ed?- (“to dig”). Cognate with Old Frisian bed, Old English bedd, Dutch bed, Old High German betti, Old Norse beðr, Gothic ???????????????? (badi). The Indo-European root is also the source of Ancient Greek ??????? (bothuros, “pit”), Latin fossa (“ditch”), Latvian bedre (“hole”), Welsh bedd, Breton bez (“grave”).

Noun

bed n

1. bed
   • (Heliand, verse 2309)

Declension

Descendants

• Middle Low German: bedde
  • Low German: Bett
    • Dutch Low Saxon: bedde
    • German Low German: Bedd
      • Plautdietsch: Bad, Bed
  • ? Icelandic: beddi

Swedish

Verb

bed (contracted be)

1. imperative of bedja.

Volapük

Etymology

Borrowed from English bed and German Bett.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bed/

Noun

bed (nominative plural beds)

1. bed

Declension

English

Etymology

un- +? bed

Verb

unbed (third-person singular simple present unbeds, present participle unbedding, simple past and past participle unbedded)

1. (transitive) To raise or rouse from bed.

   • Eels unbed themselves and stir at the noise of thunder.

Anagrams

• U-bend