vbl. sb. [f. BED + -ING1.]
I. Connected with BED sb.
1. A collective name for the articles that compose a bed, esp. the mattress, feather-bed, or other article lain upon, and the bed-clothes.
a. 1000. Lamb. Psalter, vi. 7 (Bosw.). Mid minum tearum mine beddinge ic beþwea.
a. 1000. Ags. Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, Voc., 187. Mataxa, uel corductum, uel stramentum, stræl, uel bedding.
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 3432. Ȝyf þou delyte þe yn ryche beddyng.
1388. Wyclif, 2 Sam. xvii. 28. Brouȝten to hym beddyngis and tapitis.
1486. Act 3 Hen. VII., ix. Things that be good … for Houshold … Brass, Pewter, Bedding.
1566. Wills & Inv. N. C. (1835), 254. All bedding as fetherbedds, mattrasses wth all that pertenithe thervnto.
1610. B. Jonson, Alch., V. i. He hath sold my hangings, and my beddings!
1700. Dryden, Pal. & Arc., II. 159. Bedding and clothes I will this night provide.
1815. Encycl. Brit., III. 503/2. In the Highlands heath … is very generally used as bedding.
1861. Flor. Nightingale, Nursing, 50. Whenever you can, hang up the whole of the bedding to air for a few hours.
b. A supply of bed-clothes for one bed.
1620. R. Seton, in Rep. Eglinton Papers, No. 128 (1885), 45. Your lordship most also send tuo bedding of clothes.
1724. Ramsay, Tea-t. Misc. (ed. 9), I. 28. With an auld bedden o claiths Was left me by my mither.
c. Anything used to sleep on or in; sleeping accommodation. arch. or Obs.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. XVII. 74. He goþ to a cold beddyng.
1463. Mann. & Househ. Exp., 225. He schalle have mete, and drynke, and beddynge.
a. 1500. Peblis to Play, xiv. Gilbert in ane guttar glayde; He gat na better beddin.
1596. Spenser, State Irel. (1809), I. 161. The ground … which useth to be his bedding.
1675. Hobbes, Odyss. (1677), 31. So rude or poor, As not good bedding for a friend t’ afford.
d. Litter for horses and cattle.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 465. Spread with Straw, the bedding of thy Fold.
1840. J. Stewart, Stable Econ., 137. Some people give the horse no bedding, or almost none.
2. A bottom layer or foundation, in or on which anything rests, or may be firmly fixed.
1611. Markham, Countr. Content., II. ii. (1688), 161. Straws which do belong to the bedding of the [malt-] kiln.
1677. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), II. 119. The bedding being soft mud it is safe for shipping.
1787. Best, Angling, Gloss., Bedding, the body of an artificial-fly.
1881. Ev. Man his own Mechanic, III. § 1696. A bedding of putty must be carefully laid round that part … against which the glass is to be placed.
† 3. Building. The upper and lower surfaces of stones when worked for building. See BED 12 b.
1401. Contr. Durham Dorm., in Gloss. Gothic Archit. (1845), I. 52. Et erit le beddyng cujuslibet achiler ponendi in isto opere longitudinis unius pedis de assyse.
4. Arrangement of rocks, etc., in beds or layers; stratification or any similar structure.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. § 11. 75. Walls, across which the lines of annual bedding were drawn.
1862. Ansted, Channel Isl., II. x. 264. Veins … at right angles to the apparent cleavage or bedding.
1878. Lawrence, trans. Cotta’s Rocks Class., 97. The word ‘Bedding’ is used … in speaking of all rocks, whether stratified or not. It is taken as the equivalent of the German ‘Lagerung.’
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 238. Running along the planes of stratification or bedding.
II. Connected with BED v.
5. A putting to bed; esp. of a bride.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, I. xxvi. (1811), 41. Epithalamies … ballades at the bedding of the bride.
1622. Massinger, etc., Old Law, V. i. Case up thy maidenhead: no priest, no bedding.
1822. Scott, Nigel, xxxvii. A circumstantial description of the wedding, bedding, and throwing the stocking.
6. The process of planting flowers in beds; also called bedding out.
1862. Cott. Gardener, 3 June, 182. The week has been taken up chiefly with bedding.
1885. Garden, 4 June, 521. There has been no time for bedding out.
III. Attrib. and comb., as bedding ballad, -plant, bedding-out plant; also bedding-mo(u)lding = BED-MOULDING; bedding-stone (see quot.).
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie (Arb.), 68. Epithalamie or bedding ballad of the ancient times.
1664. Evelyn, Freart’s Archit., 136. Modilions … supply the part of the bedding-moulding as our Workmen style the Ovolo in this place.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 384. Bedding Stone.—A straight piece of marble used to try the rubbed side of a brick.
1856. Gard. Chron., 55. Many of the bedding-plants were either dead or in a dying state.
1862. Ansted, Channel Isl., IV. xxi. 495. The scarlet bedding varieties often live for many years in the open ground.
1865. Cornh. Mag., May, 587. To put down some bedding-out plants.
