Contextualizebeta

strawbed

noun

Etymology

From straw + bed.

  1. derived from *bʰedʰh₂-✻ — “to dig”
  2. inherited from *badją✻ — “resting-place, plot of ground”
  3. inherited from *badi✻
  4. inherited from bedd
  5. inherited from bed
  6. compounded as strawbed — “straw + bed”

Definitions

  1. A mattress made of dry straw in a cloth sack, often used beneath a featherbed or other…

    A mattress made of dry straw in a cloth sack, often used beneath a featherbed or other softer mattress.

    • The lying-in woman was not allowed to lie in bed, but a strawbed was prepared for her on the floor.
    • To cut down labor pains , put something made of iron or steel between the strawbed and the featherbed.
    • It is very difficult for me to make my strawbed in accordance with military regulations.

  2. Childbirth.

    • An old woman called "Ala Ju" (Mother Julia) walked three miles to get me a sample of the Granny Bush (Croton linearis), whose leaves are steeped and given to women for nine days after childbirth, or "strawbed" as it is termed here.
    • It grows profusely in the Bahamas. It is used for "building up men's energy and body" and as a sponge bath for women, "after they come out of strawbed".
    • "Strawbed fever" results from an infection caught in "strawbed" (childbirth).

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for strawbed. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA