abed
English edit
Etymology edit
From Middle English abedde, on bedde (“bed”), from Old English bedd (“bed”). Equivalent to a- (“in, on”) + bed.
Pronunciation edit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /əˈbɛd/
Audio (Southern England) (file) Audio (CA) (file) - (US) IPA(key): /əˈbɛd/
- Rhymes: -ɛd
Adverb edit
abed (not comparable)
- (archaic) In bed, or on the bed; confined to bed. [First attested from 1150 to 1350.][1]
- 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?
- (archaic) To childbed
- c. 1564–1616, William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, IV, ii:
- I mean, she's brought a-bed
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
in bed, or on the bed
References edit
- ^ Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief, William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors (2002), “abed”, in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 3.
Anagrams edit
Scots edit
Verb edit
abed
- simple past tense of ab (“to hinder”)
References edit
- “abed” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.