bedding

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The sheets, pillowcases, blankets, and covers used to dress a bed.

   Fresh bedding makes even a cheap hotel room feel welcoming.

   He stripped the bedding off the mattress before the move.

   Similarbedclothes, bedlinen, bedsheet

   Note

   An old word for an everyday thing: Old English already had bedding, formed from bed plus -ing. It usually works as a mass noun, as in hire of bedding or fresh bedding. The plural beddings also appears in commercial writing, as in Yudhijit Bhattacharjee's 2008 line about foam "found in beddings, furniture and car-seat headrests." Bedclothes and bedlinen are its closest equivalents.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   Material provided for animals to lie on, such as straw or wood shavings.

   The stable hands replaced the soiled bedding each morning.

   Wood shavings make good bedding for small pets.

   Similarlitter

3. 3
   nounBritishuncountable

   The textiles of a bed together with the mattress, bedframe, and base such as a box spring.

   The hotel replaced all the bedding, including the worn mattresses and frames.

   She ordered a complete set of bedding for the guest room.

   Note

   A British widening of the word: here bedding takes in the whole bed, including the mattress, the frame and a base such as a box spring, not only what goes on top. A British shop or hotel advertising new bedding may mean furniture, so check the context before assuming the sheets-and-blankets meaning.

4. 4
   verb

   Present participle of bed.

   The gardeners spent the morning bedding tulips along the path.

   Bedding the foundation stones correctly took the masons all week.

   Note

   The verb form doubles the final d, as short verbs ending in a single consonant do: bed becomes bedding. As a gerund it is spelled exactly like the noun, but it names an action. Most often that action is setting something firmly into a hollow or resting place, such as stones into mortar or bulbs into soil. That use comes from bed's sense of "to embed."

5. 5
   noununcountable

   The seasonal planting of quick-growing plants in flower beds to give a short-lived splash of color in spring, summer, or winter.

   The botanical garden's bedding scheme brings fresh color to the borders each season.

   Spring bedding was lifted and replaced with summer annuals.

   Note

   A gardener's word for display rather than permanence: fast-growing plants go in for a single season and are cleared when it ends, so the next set can replace them. The season attaches directly to the noun, as in spring bedding, summer bedding and winter bedding. A bedding scheme is the plan that rotates these displays through a garden's beds and borders.

6. 6
   noununcountable

   In geology, a pattern of partings in granite and similar massive rocks that makes them break into distinct sheets lying flat or following the slope of the land surface.

   The quarry exploited the bedding in the granite to lift large, even sheets.

   Weathering along the bedding produced smooth, rounded rock surfaces.

   Note

   Granite and other massive rocks have no layers, yet they still part in sheets. The planes run horizontally or follow the slope of the land surface, and they are commonly attributed to pressure release as the overlying rock erodes away. Quarries work along this bedding to lift even slabs. Geologists speak of bedding in a rock body, and the planes often guide where weathering rounds the surface.

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