abed

See also: Abed and abêd

English

Etymology

From Middle English abedde, o bedde, from Old English on (“in”) + bedde (“bed”). Equivalent to a- (“in, on”) +‎ bed.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əˈbɛd/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Audio (Canada):

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• (US) IPA^(key): /əˈbɛd/
• Rhymes: -ɛd

Adverb

abed (not comparable)

1. (archaic) In bed, or on the bed; confined to bed. [First attested from 1150 to 1350.]
   • c. 1564–1616, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, II, iii:

     Not to be abed after midnight

   • 1883, Adele Marion Fielde, “倒 (tó̤)”, in A Pronouncing and Defining Dictionary of the Swatow Dialect, Arranged According to Syllables and Tones, Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press, page 560:

     [She] is sick abed.

   • 1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./4/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:

     The world was awake to the 2nd of May, but Mayfair is not the world, and even the menials of Mayfair lie long abed.

   • 1948, Alan Paton, chapter 12, in Cry, the Beloved Country, London: Jonathan Cape:

     Who can lie peacefully abed, while the darkness holds some secret?

2. (archaic) To childbed
   • c. 1564–1616, William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, IV, ii:

     I mean, she's brought a-bed

Derived terms

• lie-abed
• slugabed

 

Translations

in bed, or on the bed

• Bulgarian: на легло (na leglo)
• Dutch: te bed, bedlegerig (nl)
• Finnish: vuoteessa (fi), sängyssä (fi)
• French: au lit (fr)
• German: zu Bett, im Bett
• Italian: a letto
• Norwegian: i seng
• Portuguese: deitado (na cama)
• Russian: в посте́ли (v postéli)
• Spanish: en cama, acostado (es)
• Turkish: yatakta
• Woiwurrung: karenboon

Anagrams

• adeb, bade, baed, bead

Scots

Verb

abed

1. simple past tense of ab (“to hinder”)

References

• “abed”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.