| • | 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. |
