BED

Definitions

1. 1. 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. And made for him [a horse] a leafy bed. Byron. I wash, wring, brew, bake, . . . make the beds. Shak. In bed he slept not for my urging it. Shak.
2. 2. A plat or level piece of ground in a garden, usually a little raised above the adjoining ground. "Beds of hyacinth and roses." Milton.
3. 3. A mass or heap of anything arranged like a bed; as, a bed of ashes or coals.
4. 4. The bottom of a watercourse, or of any body of water; as, the bed of a river. So sinks the daystar in the ocean bed. Milton.
5. 5. A layer or seam, or a horizontal stratum between layers; as, a bed of coal, iron, etc.
6. 6. See Gun carriage, and Mortar bed.
7. 7. The horizontal surface of a building stone; as, the upper and lower beds.
8. 8. A course of stone or brick in a wall.
9. 9. The place or material in which a block or brick is laid.
10. 10. The lower surface of a brick, slate, or tile. Knight.
11. 11. 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.
12. 12. The superficial earthwork, or ballast, of a railroad.
13. 13. The flat part of the press, on which the form is laid.