bed-clothes pl (plural only)
- Alternative form of bedclothes.
1785, Thomas Marryat, Therapeutics; or, The Art of Healing, 7th edition, Birmingham: […] Pearson and Rollason; and sold by R. Baldwin, […], London, pages 35–36:Æruginous vomiting, ſpitting at the bye-ſtanders, gnaſhing or grinding of the teeth, or ſnatching at the bed-clothes, are the fore-runners of a diſſolution.
1793, Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin: Consisting of His Life, Written by Himself, Together with Essays, Humorous, Moral & Literary, Chiefly in the Manner of the Spectator, Dublin: […] P. Wogan, P. Byrne, J. Moore, and W. Jones, page 185:This fidgettineſs, to uſe a vulgar expreſſion for want of a better, is occaſioned wholly by an uneaſineſs in the ſkin, owing to the retenſion of the perſpirable matter—the bed-clothes having received their quantity, and, being ſaturated, refuſing to take any more.
1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], chapter XXIV, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 8:Most fortunately the exigence of despair prompted Georgiana to instant action—she seized the letter and thrust it under the bed-clothes, […]
1848, Clifton Cleve, The Book of Inventions; or, The Practical and Economical Results of the Application of Art and Science in Aid of the General Requirements of Society […], London: Henry Hurst, […], page 20:[…] comparatively speaking, few are convinced of, or perhaps acquainted with the fact, that not only do the bed-clothes intercept and retain a large proportion of this offthrow, but that it penetrates both beds and mattresses, which actually absorb a large proportion of it, […]
1897, W[illiam] Carter Platts, Angling Done Here!, London: Jarrold & Sons, […], pages 24–25:A few days afterwards the coroner’s jury sat on a coffinful of old brickbats and fragments of bed-clothes and boots and brace buttons and bits of Eli, and after a long discussion, came to the only conclusion possible, viz., that the deceased’s death was attributable to a general breaking up of the system.
[1912], J[ohn] A[lexander] Hammerton, editor, Wonders of Animal Life, volume I, London: The Waverley Book Company Ltd. […], page 126, column 1:His flexible wings, wrapped round him, serve him as bed-clothes, and his mate carries the batling clinging to her breast even when she flies out to forage.
