take to one's bed

take to one's bed

English

Verb

take to one's bed (third-person singular simple present takes to one's bed, present participle taking to one's bed, simple past took to one's bed, past participle taken to one's bed)

1. (intransitive) To become bedbound due to sickness or infirmity.
   • 1873, Charles Dickens, The Poems of Adelaide A. Procter, Introduction:

     And so the time came when she could move about no longer, and took to her bed.

   • 1883 December, Harper’s Magazine, page 135:

     By-and-by he took to his bed.

   • 1901, Andrew Lang, "The Maiden with the Wooden Helmet" in The Violet Fairy Book:

     Each day he grew more and more wretched, till at length he took to his bed and never got up.

   • 1920, D. H. Lawrence, chapter 16, in Women in Love:

     He liked sometimes to be ill enough to take to his bed.

   • 2008 Oct. 23, David Smith, "Eminem set for comeback," New Zealand Herald (retrieved 19 Sep. 2011):

     He says he took to his bed for a year and couldn't write.

Translations

to become bedbound due to sickness or infirmity

Hungarian: ágynak esik Romanian: cădea la pat

See also

• fall ill