Bedfast
adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A joint or hook that attaches a bedrail to a headboard or footboard.
- 2 One who is bedfast.
- 1 Unable to leave one's bed, especially because of illness, weakness or obesity.
"1796, Robert Burns, letter written to Mr. Cunningham, 7 July, 1796, in The Prose Works of Robert Burns; Containing his Letters and Correspondence, Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Mackenzie & Dent, 1819, p. 278 https://books.google.ca/books?id=gzYBAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false For these eight or ten months I have been ailing, sometimes bedfast and sometimes not; but these last three months I have been tortured with an excruciating rheumatism, which has reduced me to nearly the last stage."
- 1 confined to bed (by illness) wordnet
Example
More examples"1796, Robert Burns, letter written to Mr. Cunningham, 7 July, 1796, in The Prose Works of Robert Burns; Containing his Letters and Correspondence, Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Mackenzie & Dent, 1819, p. 278 https://books.google.ca/books?id=gzYBAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false For these eight or ten months I have been ailing, sometimes bedfast and sometimes not; but these last three months I have been tortured with an excruciating rheumatism, which has reduced me to nearly the last stage."
Etymology
From bed + fast.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.