bed, v. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

bed v.

[abbr. SE take to bed; note mid-16C–mid-18C SE bed, to take (a wife) to bed, e.g. in D’Urfey, Pills to Purge Melancholy (1719): ‘Lastly brought her here, / To court her for his Dear; / To Wed and Bed’; also in non-marital sense: ‘Each Hour I long to bed thee: / But if confin’d, / Sould scare believ’t a Joy’]

to seduce, to have sexual intercourse with; thus bedder n.; bedding n.

1582		Stanyhurst Of Virgil his Æneis III: Also that Andromachee dooth bed with a countrye man-husband.
1639		R. Davenport New Tricke to Cheat the Divell V i: I have a spirit in me great as thine: Th’hast boorded it, Ile see if thou canst Bed, And try if you hast mettle to thy shape.
1700		Congreve Way of the World V i: He could not have bedded your ladyship; for if he had consummated with your ladyship, he must have run the risk of the law.
1778		K. O’Hara April-Day Act III: buff.: Not wed her? dav.: No. buff.: Not bed her? dav.: No.
1834		‘Randy Johnny!’ Bang-Up Songster 9: In spite of all their huffs and cuffs, / He bedded every maid.
1841		‘The Queen’s Wedding’ Gentleman’s Spicey Songster 35: Now that they’re wedded, and they’re bedded, the Queen may say to him, / ’Taint every chap, that thus can clap, his hand upon a ---.
1850		Fast Man 6:1 n.p.: [T]though she ‘bedded’ she never ‘wedded’ with Mr. Hookham.
1877		‘Janet Baird’ Laughing Songster 130: They’ve wedded an’ bedded.
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) V 936: We did bed together again, and jolly well fucked out both were by daybreak.
1929		E. Caldwell Bastard (1963) 41: Hell, a man gets fed up bedding down these nigger gals all the time.
1931–4		D. Clemmer Prison Community (1940) 330/1: bed up, vi. To go to bed with someone (obscene).
1957		D. Niland Call Me When the Cross Turns Over (1958) 225: While I’m slogging away like an alec at Yampi she’d bedded down with a bullet-headed by-blow.
1963		B. Hecht Gaily, Gaily 92: She had bedded with a score of lovers.
1970		H.E. Bates A Little of What You Fancy (1985) 514: You know the reputation these Frogs have got – magnificent bedders and all that.
1972		(con. 1916) G. Swarthout Tin Lizzie Troop (1978) 117: I can go down from Mount Franklin to bed the bitches of Juárez!
1996		A. Close Official and Doubtful 96: Bedding the girlies too wet behind the ears to tell Stork from butter.
2000		Indep. Rev. 26 Jan. 7: He’s the man who bedded the woman who bedded the Prince of Wales’s bro.
2007		N. McCall Them (2008) 25: He liked to hear Tyrone brag about the young women he had bedded.
2010		K. Richards Life 184: She bedded me. I didn’t bed her.