Dictionary

bedswerver en · NOUN

Etymology

From bed + swerver.

Meanings

1. (archaic, historical) Someone who commits adultery; an unfaithful spouse.
   • [S]hee’s / A Bed‑swaruer, euen as bad as those / That Vulgars giue bold’st Titles […]. c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], lines 704-5, 709-10:
   • Before she said aught a word I knew that she was a bedswerver, aiming to sweep out from her hubby's cot into mine […]. 2011, Richard Flanagan, Gould's Book of Fish, Vintage, published 2016, page 134:

Forms