abed en · ADV
Pronunciation
Etymology
From Middle English abedde, o bedde, from Old English on (“in”) + bedde (“bed”). Equivalent to a- (“in, on”) + bed.
Meanings
-
(archaic, not-comparable) In bed, or on the bed; confined to bed.
[She] is sick abed.
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:In the future, most crucially, Wikilambda will continue to be debugged and extended by its core developers. They will need to understand the structure and intent of the software, and their understanding will affect the future course of the project. They will understand Wikilambda’s structure and intent using abstractions. They will encounter these abstractions in the source code, in the documentation, in the conversation of their workmates, in textbooks, in blogs, at conferences, or abed on sleepless nights puzzling over fiendish bugs.
2026, Michael Falk, “Wikilambda the ultimate: the Wikimedia foundation’s search for the perfect language”, in AI & Society: Knowledge, Culture and Communication, →DOI:Who can lie peacefully abed, while the darkness holds some secret?
1948, Alan Paton, chapter 12, in Cry, the Beloved Country, London: Jonathan Cape:The world was awake to the 2nd of May, but Mayfair is not the world, and even the menials of Mayfair lie long abed.
1922, Michael Arlen, “Ep./4/2”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:Not to be abed after midnight
c. 1564–1616, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, II, iii:
-
(archaic, not-comparable) On a childbed.
I mean, she's brought a-bed
c. 1564–1616, William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, IV, ii:
Deriveds
slugabed · sick-abed · pissabed · lie-abed
Translations (18)
es acostado (in bed, or on the bed) · wyi karenboon (in bed, or on the bed) · es en cama (in bed, or on the bed) · nl bedlegerig (in bed, or on the bed) · no i seng (in bed, or on the bed) · fi vuoteessa (in bed, or on the bed) · pt deitado (na cama) (in bed, or on the bed) · de im Bett (in bed, or on the bed) · ru в посте́ли (in bed, or on the bed) · tr yatakta (in bed, or on the bed) · cs v posteli (in bed, or on the bed) · eo en lito (in bed, or on the bed) · bg на легло (in bed, or on the bed) · fr au lit (in bed, or on the bed) · nl te bed (in bed, or on the bed) · fi sängyssä (in bed, or on the bed) · de zu Bett (in bed, or on the bed) · it a letto (in bed, or on the bed)