abed
See also: Abed and abêd
English
Etymology
From Middle English abedde, on bedde (“bed”), from Old English bedd (“bed”). Equivalent to a- (“in, on”) + bed.
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /əˈbɛd/
Audio (UK) (file) Audio (CA) (file) - (US) IPA(key): /əˈbɛd/
- Rhymes: -ɛd
Adverb
abed (not comparable)
- In bed, or on the bed; confined to bed. [First attested from 1150 to 1350.][1]
- c. 1564–1616, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, II, iii:
- Not to be abed after midnight
- 1883, Fielde, Adele Marion, “倒 (tó̤)”, in A Pronouncing and Defining Dictionary of the Swatow Dialect, Arranged According to Syllables and Tones, Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press, page 560:
- [She] is sick abed.
- 1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./4/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:
- The world was awake to the 2nd of May, but Mayfair is not the world, and even the menials of Mayfair lie long abed.
- 1948, Alan Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country, London: Jonathan Cape, Chapter 12,
- Who can lie peacefully abed, while the darkness holds some secret?
-
- To childbed
- c. 1564–1616, William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, IV, ii:
- I mean, she's brought a-bed
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Derived terms
- lie-abed
- slugabed
Translations
in bed, or on the bed
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References
- Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief; William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors (2002), “abed”, in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford; New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 3.
Anagrams
- adeb, bade, baed, bead
Scots
Verb
abed
- simple past tense of ab (“to hinder”)
References
- “abed” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.