Note: Bed is much used adjectively or in combination; as, bed key or bedkey; bed wrench or bedwrench; bedchamber; bedmaker, etc. Bed of justice (French Hist.), the throne (F. lit bed) occupied by the king when sitting in one of his parliaments (judicial courts); hence, a session of a refractory parliament, at which the king was present for the purpose of causing his decrees to be registered. — 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 a bed, to prepare a bed; to arrange or put in order a bed and its bedding. — From bed and board (Law), a phrase applied to a separation by partial divorce of man and wife, without dissolving the bonds of matrimony. If such a divorce (now commonly called a judicial separation) be granted at the instance of the wife, she may have alimony.
BED
Bed, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Bedded; p. pr. & vb. n. Bedding.]
1. To place in a bed. [Obs.] Bacon.
2. To make partaker of one's bed; to cohabit with. I'll to the Tuscan wars, and never bed her. Shak.
3. To furnish with a bed or bedding.
4. To plant or arrange in beds; to set, or cover, as in a bed of soft earth; as, to bed the roots of a plant in mold.
5. To lay or put in any hollow place, or place of rest and security, surrounded or inclosed; to embed; to furnish with or place upon a bed or foundation; as, to bed a stone; it was bedded on a rock. Among all chains or clusters of mountains where large bodies of still water are bedded. Wordsworth.
6. (Masonry)
Defn: To dress or prepare the surface of stone) so as to serve as a bed.
7. To lay flat; to lay in order; to place in a horizontal or recumbent position. "Bedded hair." Shak.