bed

1 of 4

noun

ˈbed 

1

a

: a piece of furniture on or in which to lie and sleep

b(1)

: a place of sex relations

(2)

: marital relationship

(3)

: close association : cahoots

a legislator in bed with lobbyists

c

: a place for sleeping

d

: sleep

also : a time for sleeping

took a walk before bed

e(1)

: a mattress filled with soft material

(2)

: bedstead

f

: the equipment and services needed to care for one hospitalized patient or hotel guest

2

: a flat or level surface: such as

a

: a plot of ground prepared for plants

also : the plants grown in such a plot

b

: the bottom of a body of water

especially : an area of sea bottom supporting a heavy growth of a particular organism

an oyster bed

3

: a supporting surface or structure : foundation

4

: layer, stratum

5

a

: 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 movie 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

bed

2 of 4

verb

bedded; bedding

intransitive verb

1

a

: to find or make sleeping accommodations

—usually used with down

a place to bed down

b

: to go to bed

—usually used with down

bed down at midnight

2

: to form a layer

3

: to lie flat or flush

transitive verb

1

a

: to furnish with a bed or bedding : settle in sleeping quarters

—often used with down

b

: to put, take, or send to bed

2

a

: embed

b

: to plant or arrange in beds

c

: base, establish

3

a

: to lay flat or in a layer

b

: to make a bed in or of

4

: to have sexual intercourse with

BEd

3 of 4

abbreviation (1)

bachelor of education

BED

4 of 4

abbreviation (2)

binge eating disorder

More than seven million Americans struggle with binge eating disorder (BED), according to a recent Harvard-based study …

—Naomi Barr

BED is characterized by eating alone, more rapidly than normal, continuing to eat even though you're full and eating when you're not really hungry.

—New Hampshire Sunday News

Phrases

go to bed with

: to have sexual intercourse with (someone)

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

Synonyms

Noun

• mattress
• couch
• sofa
• bunk
• sack

Verb

• sleep
• retire
• nap
• settle
• turn in
• bunk

Examples of bed in a Sentence

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.

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

On our shopping list is a polished king bed that’s 39% off, an armoire that’s perfect for stashing seasonal clothing, and a sleek metal accent table under $200. —Mariana Best, Better Homes & Gardens, 30 Oct. 2025

Adding a 3,000-bed correctional facility as a customer of a water treatment network in a city with a population of about 3,600 people is no small feat, according to Ozark Mayor Roxie Hall. —Penny Weaver, Arkansas Online, 30 Oct. 2025

Verb

Invest in better sleep today by shopping Wayfair’s bedding sale, and keep scrolling for more of our favorite deals. —Melody Kazel, PEOPLE, 24 Oct. 2025

Hot water can be rough on fabrics and reduce the quality of your bedding over time, causing shrinking, fading, and deterioration of the fabric. —Karen Brewer Grossman, Southern Living, 23 Oct. 2025

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 *b^hod^h-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

Verb

before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1a

Phrases Containing bed

• air bed
• bed and board
• bed-and-breakfast
• bed check
• bed down
• bed head
• bed-hop
• bed linen(s)
• bed molding
• bed of roses
• bed rest
• bed share
• bed sharing
• bed-sit
• bed-sitter
• bed-sitting room
• bed table
• bed warmer
• bed-wetter
• bed-wetting
• before bed
• bunk bed
• camp bed
• canopy bed
• change a bed
• die in bed
• die in one's bed
• feather bed
• field bed
• filter bed
• flower bed
• fluidized bed
• get out of bed
• get out of bed on the wrong side
• get up on the wrong side of the bed
• go to bed
• Hollywood bed
• make the bed
• marriage bed
• Murphy bed
• nail bed
• on the bed
• oyster bed
• procrustean bed
• put the children to bed
• put to bed
• roll out of bed
• sea bed
• single bed
• sleigh bed
• sofa bed
• strip the/one's bed
• stumble out of bed
• take to one's bed
• tanning bed
• test bed
• time for bed
• truckle bed
• trundle bed
• twin bed
• water bed
• wet the bed

Rhymes for bed

• bled
• bread
• bred
• dead
• dread
• ed
• fed
• fled
• ged
• head
• lead
• led

Kids Definition

bed

1 of 2 noun

ˈbed 

1

a

: a piece of furniture on which to lie or sleep

b

: sleep entry 1 sense 1

also : a time for sleeping

watched TV before bed

2

a

: a plot of ground prepared for plants

b

: the bottom of a body of water

the bed of a river

3

: a supporting surface or structure : foundation

4

: layer entry 1 sense 2

a bed of sandstone

bed

2 of 2 verb

bedded; bedding

1

: to put or go to bed

bed down for the night

2

: to fix in or on a foundation

an argument bedded on good sense

3

: to plant or arrange in beds

Medical Definition

bed

1 of 2 noun

ˈbed 

1

a

: a piece of furniture on or in which one may lie and sleep see hospital bed

b

: the equipment and services needed to care for one hospitalized patient

2

: a layer of specialized or altered tissue especially when separating dissimilar structures see nail bed, vascular bed

BED

2 of 2 abbreviation

binge eating disorder

One of these patterns is called binge eating disorder (BED), in which, at least twice a week, people uncontrollably eat large quantities of food in a short time span but do not purge.

—Carole Sugarman, The Washington Post