(Hebrews mittah), for rest at night (Exodus 8:3; 1 Samuel 19:13, 15, 16, etc.); during sickness (Genesis 47:31; 48:2; 49:33, etc.); as a sofa for rest (1 Samuel 28:23; Amos 3:12). Another Hebrew word (er'es) so rendered denotes a canopied bed, or a bed with curtains (Deuteronomy 3:11; Psalm 132:3), for sickness (Psalm 6:6; 41:3).

In the New Testament it denotes sometimes a litter with a coverlet (Matthew 9:2, 6; Luke 5:18; Acts 5:15).

The Jewish bedstead was frequently merely the divan or platform along the sides of the house, sometimes a very slight portable frame, sometimes only a mat or one or more quilts. The only material for bed-clothes is mentioned in 1 Samuel 19:13. Sleeping in the open air was not uncommon, the sleeper wrapping himself in his outer garment (Exodus 22:26, 27; Deuteronomy 24:12, 13).

Noah Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language

1. (n.) An article of furniture to sleep or take rest in or on; a couch. Specifically: A sack or mattress, filled with some soft material, in distinction from the bedstead on which it is placed (as, a feather bed), or this with the bedclothes added. In a general sense, any thing or place used for sleeping or reclining on or in, as a quantity of hay, straw, leaves, or twigs.

2. (n.) (Used as the symbol of matrimony) Marriage.

3. (n.) A plat or level piece of ground in a garden, usually a little raised above the adjoining ground.

4. (n.) A mass or heap of anything arranged like a bed; as, a bed of ashes or coals.

5. (n.) The bottom of a watercourse, or of any body of water; as, the bed of a river.

6. (n.) A layer or seam, or a horizontal stratum between layers; as, a bed of coal, iron, etc.

7. (n.) See Gun carriage, and Mortar bed.

8. (n.) The horizontal surface of a building stone; as, the upper and lower beds.

9. (n.) A course of stone or brick in a wall.

10. (n.) The place or material in which a block or brick is laid.

11. (n.) The lower surface of a brick, slate, or tile.

12. (n.) The foundation or the more solid and fixed part or framing of a machine; or a part on which something is laid or supported; as, the bed of an engine.

13. (n.) The superficial earthwork, or ballast, of a railroad.

14. (n.) The flat part of the press, on which the form is laid.

15. (v. t.) To place in a bed.

16. (v. t.) To make partaker of one's bed; to cohabit with.

17. (v. t.) To furnish with a bed or bedding.

18. (v. t.) To plant or arrange in beds; to set, or cover, as in a bed of soft earth; as, to bed the roots of a plant in mold.

19. (v. t.) To lay or put in any hollow place, or place of rest and security, surrounded or enclosed; to embed; to furnish with or place upon a bed or foundation; as, to bed a stone; it was bedded on a rock.

20. (v. t.) To dress or prepare the surface of stone) so as to serve as a bed.

21. (v. t.) To lay flat; to lay in order; to place in a horizontal or recumbent position.

22. (v. i.) To go to bed; to cohabit.