▪ I. abed, adv.
(əˈbɛd)
Forms: 1–2 on bedde, 2–3 o bede, 3 a bedde, 5 a-bed, 7– abed.
[a prep.1 of position = OE. on + bed n. It is only within the last three centuries that the two words have been written as one.]
1. In bed. Somewhat arch.
| c 1000 Ags. Gosp. Luke xvii. 34 On þære nihte beoð tweᵹen on bedde. 1205 Layamon 15706 Ich wæs on bedde. [later text Ich was abedde.] 1297 R. Glouc. 547 To habbe inome hom vnarmed, & some abedde aslepe. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. v. 417 And ligge abedde in lenten, and my lemman in myn armes. 1556 Chron. Grey Friars 20 They came sodeinly to Sandwych in the mornynge, when men wære a bede. 1604 Shakes. Oth. iii. i. 33 You haue not bin a-bed then? 1605 ― Macb. ii. i. 12 The King's a bed. 1684 Bunyan Pilg. ii. 77 We need not, when a-bed, lie awake. 1762 Hume Hist. Eng. IV. lix. 573 (1806) The princess Henrietta was obliged to lie a-bed for want of a fire to warm her. 1876 Smiles Scotch Naturalist ii. 30 (ed. 4) The lights were out, and all were thought to be abed. |
2. Confined to bed (by illness); laid up.
| 1660 Pepys Diary (1879) I. 151 Our wench very lame, abed these two days. 1761 Smollett Gil Blas I. i. x. 51 (1802) A violent fit of the gout and rheumatism, that kept him a-bed. 1873 W. H. Dixon Two Queens III. xv. ix. 182 Louis being abed with gout, and otherwise broken in his health. |
† 3. to bring a-bed: to deliver of a child; gen. in passive, to be brought a-bed, now to bed. Also fig. to deliver one of a subject, draw out. Obs.
| 1523 Ld. Berners Froissart I. cxlvii. 176 The quene was brought a bedde of a fayre lady named Margarete. 1572 B. Googe Husbandrie (1586) 43 b, The recording hereof is my great joye; for in talking of these matters you bring me a bedde. 1580 North Plutarch (1676) 34 To go her full time, and to be brought abed in good order. 1610 G. Fletcher Christ's Vict. i. 50 Upon her breast Delight doth softly sleep, And of Eternal joy is brought abed. |
▪ II. abed(e
obs. past tense of abide.