Bed

An article of furniture to sleep or take rest in or on; a couch. Specifically: A sack or mattress, filled with some soft material, in distinction from the bedstead on which it is placed (as, a feather bed), or this with the bedclothes added. In a general sense, any thing or place used for sleeping or reclining on or in, as a quantity of hay, straw, leaves, or twigs.

(Used as the symbol of matrimony) Marriage.

A plat or level piece of ground in a garden, usually a little raised above the adjoining ground.

A mass or heap of anything arranged like a bed; as, a bed of ashes or coals.

The bottom of a watercourse, or of any body of water; as, the bed of a river.

A layer or seam, or a horizontal stratum between layers; as, a bed of coal, iron, etc.

See Gun carriage, and Mortar bed.

The horizontal surface of a building stone; as, the upper and lower beds.

A course of stone or brick in a wall.

The place or material in which a block or brick is laid.

The lower surface of a brick, slate, or tile.

The foundation or the more solid and fixed part or framing of a machine; or a part on which something is laid or supported; as, the bed of an engine.

The superficial earthwork, or ballast, of a railroad.

The flat part of the press, on which the form is laid.

To place in a bed.

To make partaker of one's bed; to cohabit with.

To furnish with a bed or bedding.

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.

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.

To dress or prepare the surface of stone) so as to serve as a bed.

To lay flat; to lay in order; to place in a horizontal or recumbent position.

To go to bed; to cohabit.

a depression forming the ground under a body of water; "he searched for treasure on the ocean bed"

(geology) a stratum of rock (especially sedimentary rock); "they found a bed of sandstone"

a foundation of earth or rock supporting a road or railroad track; "the track bed had washed away"

single thickness of usually some homogeneous substance; "slices of hard-boiled egg on a bed of spinach"