bedfellow

[ bed-fel-oh ]
See synonyms for bedfellow on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. Also called bedmate. a person who shares one's bed.

  2. an associate or collaborator, especially one who forms a temporary alliance for reasons of expediency: Politics makes strange bedfellows.

Origin of bedfellow

1
First recorded in 1400–50, bedfellow is from the late Middle English word bedfelow.See bed, fellow

Words Nearby bedfellow

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use bedfellow in a sentence

  • Wallace crept into bed beside his communicative bedfellow in silence.

    Wayside Courtships | Hamlin Garland
  • He first made an attempt on the apprentice, his bedfellow; but he struggled so far as to effect his escape, and hid himself.

  • He implores mercy for his “desolate bedfellow,” for her children, and for his sons by his first wife.

  • My bedfellow and I slept on an oilcloth, covered with an overcoat, and tied our four feet up together in a flannel shirt.

    Under the Stars and Bars | Walter A. Clark
  • Why do they hardly feel that they have prayed if company, or a bedfellow, on a journey, keeps them from using oral prayer?

    Bertha and Her Baptism | Nehemiah Adams

British Dictionary definitions for bedfellow

bedfellow

/ (ˈbɛdˌfɛləʊ) /


noun
  1. a person with whom one shares a bed

  2. a temporary ally or associate

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012