Bed

[A. S. bed; Icel. bed; Du. bedde; Ger. bett. Etymology uncertain.) Something to rest or sleep on; a couch; an article of furniture to sleep or rest on. "Oh!& mighty large bed! bigger by half than the great bed Ware." - Farquhar. -Lawful cohabitation; marital connection. "George, the eldest son of this second bed." - Lord Clarendon. -A plat of earth in a garden, slightly banked or raised above the surrounding level. "Herbs will be tenderer and fairer, if you take them out of beds." Bacon. -The channel of a river, or of any volume of water. "Down sunk a hollow bottom, broad, and deep, Capacious bed of waters." - Milton. -The superficial earthwork, or ballast of a railway. To be brought to bed. To be delivered of a child; often used with the particle of; as, "she was brought to bed of a daughter." "Ten months after Florimel happen'd to wed, And was brought in a laudable manner to bed." -Prior. To make the bed. To put the bed in order after it has been used. "I keep his house...and make the beds. and do all myself." Shaks. To put to bed. To deliver of a child. ( Hist .) In early ages it was the practice of mankind to stretch themselves upon the skins of animals, which was the custom of the Greeks and Romans, and of the ancient Britons before the Roman invasion; after which event, the skins, spread for this purpose on the floors of apartments, were changed for heath and rushes; and, in the course of time, the introduction of agriculture supplied the more civilized of the English with the greater comfort and convenience of straw beds. The beds at the ians of this period were filled with the soft down of reeds, and those of the Roman patricians with feathers. In Wales, as late as the end of the 12th century, the beds of the humbler cla were stuffed with rushes, and straw was used in the royal chambers of England at the close of the 13th. Beds appear to have been the chief domestic treasures in England during the 14th century, and were considered of sufficient importance to be named in the wills of the sovereigns and the chief nobility. Anne, Counte of Pembroke, for instance, in 1367, gave to her daughter a bed, "with the furniture of her father's arms." Edward, the Black Prince, bequeathed to his confe or, Sir Robert de Walsham, a large bed of red camora, with his arms embroidered at each corner; while to another friend he left another bed of camora, powdered with blue eagles; and, in 1385, his widow gave "to my dear son, the king, my new bed of red velvet, embroidered with ostrich feathers of silver, and heads The Jews only laid off their sandals and outer garments at night. In our country, as in Europe, the modern bed is a case or sack of ticking, filled with chaff, wool, feathers, or any other soft material, and placed upon a raised wooden or iron framework, which is called the bedstead . (Hygiene.) Few people, perhaps, give sufficient heed to the fact, that, out of the allotted term of man's life the threescore and ten years of the Scripture, -TWENTY- Be dazzlingly, adv . In such a manner as to bedazzle.