bedchamber
(ˈbɛdˌtʃeɪmbə(r))
Also 4 cha(u)mbre.
[f. bed n. + chamber. Cf. MHG. bettekammere.]
A chamber or room intended for holding a bed; arch. and displaced in common use by bedroom, exc. in reference to the royal bedchamber, as in gentleman, groom, lord, or lady of the bedchamber.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. v. 136 Þe Beste in þe Bed-chaumbre lay bi þe wowe. 1611 Shakes. Cymb. ii. iv. 66 Her Bed⁓chamber..was hang'd With Tapistry of Silke and silver. 1685 Lond. Gaz. No. 2028/2 Then the Lord Churchill Gentleman of the Bedchamber, followed by Two Grooms of the Bed-Chamber. 1702 Ibid. No. 3862/1 The Ladies of the Bed-chamber, Maids of Honour, and other Ladies. 1776 Gibbon Decl. & F. I. 70 Those menial offices, which, in the household and bedchamber of a limited monarch, are so eagerly solicited by the proudest nobles. 1789 Ld. Auckland Corr. (1861) II. 188 We are obliged to have all the six children in our bedchamber to-night. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 248 Letting us know how the parlours and bed⁓chambers of our ancestors looked. |
b. attrib., as bed-chamber candle, bedchamber plot, bedchamber-man.
| 1643 Prynne Sov. Power Parl. iii. 89 Nor [must] his Bedchamber-men attire him, for feare of high Treason. 1671 F. Philipps Reg. Necess. 46 All the Chamberlains or Bed⁓chamber-men. 1833 Macaulay War Success., Ess. (1854) I. 259/1 The great party..was undermined by bedchamber-women at St. James's. 1854 Thackeray Newcomes I. 32 A bed-chamber candle. 1880 Disraeli Endym. lviii, The famous Bed-Chamber Plot..which terminated in the return of the Whigs to office. |