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bed

/bɛd/

/bɛd/

Other forms: beds; bedding; bedded

Your bed is the piece of furniture you sleep on at night. One of a babysitter's most important tasks is telling kids when it's time to get into their beds.

The bed you get into at bedtime is different from the garden bed you dig each spring, preparing to plant seeds. Another kind of bed is the one made of straw or hay that's tucked inside a barn and intended for animals to sleep on. A truck also has a bed — the open rear part you can fill with goods. To bed, or "bed down," is to put someone to bed or climb into bed yourself.

Definitions of bed
  1. noun
    a piece of furniture that provides a place to sleep
    “he sat on the edge of the bed
    “the room had only a bed and chair”
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    berth, built in bed, bunk
    a bed on a ship or train; usually in tiers
    built-in bed
    a bed that is built in and fixed to a wall
    bunk
    a rough bed (as at a campsite)
    bunk, bunk bed
    beds built one above the other
    camp bed, cot
    a small bed that folds up for storage or transport
    couch
    a narrow bed on which a patient lies during psychiatric or psychoanalytic treatment
    deathbed
    the bed on which a person dies
    double bed
    a bed wide enough to accommodate two sleepers
    four-poster
    a bed with posts at the four corners that can be used to support a canopy or curtains
    hammock, sack
    a hanging bed of canvas or rope netting (usually suspended between two trees); swings easily
    marriage bed
    the bed shared by a newly wed couple
    Murphy bed
    a bed that can be folded or swung into a cabinet when not being used
    plank-bed
    a bed of boards (without a mattress)
    platform bed
    a bed without springs
    sickbed
    the bed on which a sick person lies
    single bed
    a bed for one occupant
    sleigh bed
    a bed with solid headboard and footboard that roll outward at the top
    truckle, truckle bed, trundle, trundle bed
    a low bed to be slid under a higher bed
    twin bed
    one of a pair of identical beds
    water bed
    a bed with a mattress made of strong plastic that is filled with water
    hospital bed
    a single bed with a frame in three sections so the head or middle or foot can be raised as required
    lower, lower berth
    the lower of two berths
    upper, upper berth
    the higher of two berths
    type of:
    bedroom furniture
    furniture intended for use in a bedroom
  2. verb
    furnish with a bed
    “The inn keeper could bed all the new arrivals”
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    types:
    bunk
    provide with a bunk
    type of:
    furnish, provide, render, supply
    give something useful or necessary to
  3. verb
    put to bed
    “The children were bedded at ten o'clock”
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    type of:
    lay, place, pose, position, put, set
    put into a certain place or abstract location
  4. verb
    prepare for sleep
    “He goes to bed at the crack of dawn”
    synonyms: crawl in, go to bed, go to sleep, hit the hay, hit the sack, kip down, retire, sack out, turn in
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    Antonyms:
    arise, get up, rise, turn out, uprise
    get up and out of bed
    types:
    bed down, bunk down
    go to bed
    crash, doss, doss down
    sleep in a convenient place
  5. verb
    have sexual intercourse with
    synonyms: have intercourse, have sex, love, roll in the hay
    make out, neck
    kiss, embrace, or fondle with sexual passion
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    have, take
    have sex with; archaic use
    fornicate
    have sex without being married
    swing
    engage freely in promiscuous sex, often with the husband or wife of one's friends
    bed-hop, bedhop, sleep around
    be sexually active with more than one partner
  6. noun
    a depression forming the ground under a body of water
    “he searched for treasure on the ocean bed
    synonyms: bottom
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    lake bed, lake bottom
    the bottom of a lake
    Davy Jones, Davy Jones's locker, ocean bottom, ocean floor, sea bottom, sea floor, seabed
    the bottom of a sea or ocean
    river bottom, riverbed
    a channel occupied (or formerly occupied) by a river
    creek bed, streambed
    a channel occupied (or formerly occupied) by a stream
    abyssal zone
    the deep sea (2000 meters or more) where there is no light
    continental shelf
    the relatively shallow (up to 200 meters) seabed surrounding a continent
    bathyal district, bathyal zone, continental slope
    the steep descent of the seabed from the continental shelf to the abyssal zone
    neritic zone
    the ocean waters from the low tide mark to a depth of about 100 fathoms
    twilight zone
    the lowest level of the ocean to which light can reach
    dry wash, wash
    the dry bed of an intermittent stream (as at the bottom of a canyon)
    type of:
    depression, natural depression
    a sunken or depressed geological formation
  7. noun
    a foundation of earth or rock supporting a road or railroad track
    “the track bed had washed away”
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    types:
    railroad bed
    a bed on which railroad track is laid
    roadbed
    a bed supporting a road
    type of:
    base, foot, foundation, fundament, groundwork, substructure, understructure
    lowest support of a structure
  8. noun
    the flat surface of a printing press on which the type form is laid in the last stage of producing a newspaper or magazine or book etc.
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    type of:
    surface
    the outer boundary of an artifact or a material layer constituting or resembling such a boundary
  9. noun
    a plot of ground in which plants are growing
    “the gardener planted a bed of roses”
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    asparagus bed
    a bed in which asparagus is growing
    bed of flowers, flower bed, flowerbed
    a bed in which flowers are growing
    hotbed
    a bed of earth covered with glass and heated by rotting manure to promote the growth of plants
    seedbed
    a bed where seedlings are grown before transplanting
    turnip bed
    a bed in which turnips are growing
    bed of roses, rose bed
    a flower bed in which roses are growing
    tulip bed
    a flowerbed in which tulips are growing
    type of:
    patch, plot, plot of ground, plot of land
    a small area of ground covered by specific vegetation
  10. verb
    place (plants) in a prepared bed of soil
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    type of:
    plant, set
    put or set (seeds, seedlings, or plants) into the ground
  11. noun
    single thickness of usually some homogeneous substance
    “slices of hard-boiled egg on a bed of spinach”
    synonyms: layer
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    backing, mount
    something forming a back that is added for strengthening
    blanket
    a layer of lead surrounding the highly reactive core of a nuclear reactor
    course, row
    (construction) a layer of masonry
    cushion
    the layer of air that supports a hovercraft or similar vehicle
    interlayer
    a layer placed between other layers
    lift
    one of the layers forming the heel of a shoe or boot
    overlay
    a layer of decorative material (such as gold leaf or wood veneer) applied over a surface
    ply
    (usually in combinations) one of several layers of cloth or paper or wood as in plywood
    tier
    one of two or more layers one atop another
    wall
    a layer of material that encloses space
    damp course, damp-proof course
    a course of some impermeable material laid in the foundation walls of building near the ground to prevent dampness from rising into the building
    row of bricks
    a course of bricks place next to each other (usually in a straight line)
    top lift
    the bottom layer of a heel
    type of:
    artefact, artifact
    a man-made object taken as a whole
  12. noun
    a stratum of ore or coal thick enough to be mined with profit
    “he worked in the coal beds
    synonyms: seam
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    types:
    coal seam
    a seam of coal
    type of:
    stratum
    one of several parallel layers of material arranged one on top of another (such as a layer of tissue or cells in an organism or a layer of sedimentary rock)
  13. noun
    (geology) a stratum of rock (especially sedimentary rock)
    “they found a bed of sandstone”
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    ore bed
    a stratum of ore
    type of:
    stratum
    one of several parallel layers of material arranged one on top of another (such as a layer of tissue or cells in an organism or a layer of sedimentary rock)
Pronunciation
US

/bɛd/

UK

/bɛd/

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