marriage-bed
The bed used by a married couple; hence transf. marital intercourse, with its rights and duties. to defile, violate the marriage-bed: to commit adultery.
| 1590 Shakes. Com. Err. ii. i. 27 Adri. This seruitude makes you to keepe vnwed. Luci. Not this, but troubles of the marriage bed. 1675 Traherne Chr. Ethics 414 The great felicity which lovers promise to themselves, and taste also when they meet together in the marriage-bed. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 446 ¶6 We do not find any Comedy..raised upon the Violations of the Marriage-Bed. 1776 Adam Smith W.N. ii. iii. (1869) I. 351 The marriage-bed of James the First of Great Britain was, a few years ago, the ornament of an alehouse at Dunfermline. 1869 Lecky Europ. Mor. (1877) II. iv. 7 During the period of penance, the penitent was compelled to abstain from the marriage-bed. 1896 A. E. Housman Shropshire Lad xxviii, Ages since the vanquished bled Round my mother's marriage-bed. 1913 D. H. Lawrence Love Poems 5 The low-built shed Where hangs the swallow's marriage bed. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 458 He felt it his mission in life to urge me, to defile the marriage bed, to commit adultery at the earliest possible opportunity. |