Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
sick bed

sick bed

2 2.5
A bed where a person lies when they are ill or recovering
  • noun
  • /sɪk bɛd/
translation icon : cama de enfermo
  • I spent the last two weeks recovering in my sick bed after surgery.

My granddaddy didn't confess his love for my Nana until he was on his sick bed.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • There were so many of them sitting in rows facing the sick bed—on folding chairs and little canvas stools they'd brought just like they did for a kiva ceremony or a summer dance.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • A woman announces that she's going to leave the office to be with a child on its sick bed, and she is damned as disorganized, irresponsible, and showing insufficient commitment.

    I Don't Know How She Does It (2011)

  • Sorry to drag you from your sick bed.

    Eye in the Sky (2015)

  • I'm sorry to drag you out of your sick bed.

    55 Days at Peking (1963)

  • Summoned to the sick bed.

    Onegin (1999)

  • I actually got out of a sick bed to vote for Reagan because it wasn't clear that he would win right up until election day.

    Blog text (10)

  • The sick bed.

    Onegin (1999)

  • Little Taidgh lay upon the settle that had served as Meredydd's sick bed the day before.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • It pains me to share this news on my birthday, but today Lykke Li wrote me a letter from her "sick bed."

    Blog text (4)

  • So as the last of the Noronsoffs raves on his sick bed, calling death down on those who have wronged him, he regressively merges with the first one aggrieved through an atavism of language.

    Academic text (1991)

Synonyms

sickbed
vssick bed
3 4.8

The bed where a person lies when they are very ill

is for a person who is ill or recovering, not only for severe cases

Surface Forms

sick bed singular
sick beds plural

Morphology

sick + bed

The meaning 'the bed on which a person lies when ill' is directly derivable from combining 'sick' (ill) with 'bed' (a place to lie), with 'sick' simply qualifying the bed. This adjective+noun composition is a common, cross-linguistic pattern and would be immediately understandable to a B1 learner who knows both constituents.

Etymology

Sick bed comes from the simple image of a bed where someone is sick and must stay to rest. That's why it means 'the bed someone lies in when they are ill or getting better'.