- present participle of bed.
bedding
Americannoun
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beddings
plural
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blankets, sheets, etc., used on a bed; bedclothes.
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bedclothes together with a mattress.
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litter; straw, etc., as a bed for animals.
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Building Trades.
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a foundation or bottom layer.
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a thin layer of putty laid in the rabbet of a window frame or muntin to give a pane of glass an even backing.
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Geology. arrangement of sedimentary rocks in strata.
adjective
noun
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bedclothes, sometimes considered together with a mattress
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litter, such as straw, for animals
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something acting as a foundation, such as mortar under a brick
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the arrangement of a mass of rocks into distinct layers; stratification
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of bedding
Explanation
Use the word bedding when you're talking about sheets, pillowcases, blankets, or any other coverings for a bed. If you switch from a twin to a queen-sized bed, you'll need new bedding. When a college student moves into a dorm room she brings her own bedding, and when your grandmother gets her guest room ready for a visitor, she might wash all the bedding. Bedding also means the straw, hay, or other materials that a farm animal sleeps on — or the shredded paper you use to line your gerbil's cage. It comes from the Old English word beddinge, "bed covering," from bedd, "bed" or "resting place."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
They lingered on a bench in hospital reception without toys, bedding or baggage of any kind.
From BBC ● Oct. 22, 2026
Bedbugs are small, wingless parasites that can live on clothes, furniture and bedding.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026
He also took notice of the items being put on sale — from clothing to shoes, to home goods like bedding.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 29, 2026
Hundreds of volunteers hurried through the packed parking lot next to Bogota's largest stadium, forming human chains to pass donated water bottles, food provisions, sanitary products and bedding to the sorting area.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
I didn’t take much with me: a dozen jars of home-canned peaches, bedding, and a garbage bag full of clothes.
From "Educated" by Tara Westover
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Maxx and Five Below for deals on neon lights, wall paper decals and beddings.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 3, 2023
You can also put beddings, removable upholstery and curtains in a hot tumble dryer for 20 minutes to kill them.
From Salon ● Oct. 26, 2015
In the old tales these three materials—brushwood, moss, and rushes—are called the "Three beddings of the Fena."
From A Reading Book in Irish History by P. W. Joyce
The walls were moldy and hung with ancient cobwebs; the curtains and beddings were rotten; the furniture was rickety and ready to fall to pieces.
From A Tramp Abroad — Volume 03 by Mark Twain
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.