| 释义 |
† bedstaff Obs.|ˈbɛdstɑːf, -æ-|
Pl. -staffs, staves.
[see staff.]
A staff or stick used in some way about a bed. Formerly well-known as a ready weapon: hence, probably, the phrase in the twinkling of a bedstaff: cf. ‘the twinkling of an eye’.
a. Dr. Johnson explains it as: ‘A wooden pin stuck anciently on sides of the bed-stead to hold the cloaths from slipping on either side.’ (For this, no authority is given, and no corroborative evidence has been found.) b. The stout sticks or staves laid (loose) across the bed-stocks in old wooden bedsteads, to support the bedding (the precursors of the modern ‘laths’), are in Scotland called bed-rungs (rung = staff, cudgel), and in some parts of England bed-sticks: they often served as improvised weapons. c. When a bed is fixed in a recess, a stick or staff is used to help in making it, and sometimes called a bed-stick. (The ‘bed-staves’ in quot. 1626, six to each bed, were, of course, b.)
1576Baker Gesner's Jewel of Health 147/1 Starring it well about with a short bedde staffe. 1626Alleyn's Will (N.) All the furniture in the twelve poor schollars chamber, that is to say, six bedsteads, sixe mattresses, six feather beds..three dozen of bedstaves, and six pewter chamber potts. a1652Brome City Wit iv. iii, Say there is no virtue in cudgels and bedstaves. 1711F. Fuller Med. Gymn. 42 Beating his bare Hip with a Bedstaff. 1845Barham Ingol. Leg. (1862) 183 In her hand she grasped the bedstaff, a weapon of mickle might.
1660Charac. Italy 78 In the twinkling of a Bedstaff he disrobed himself..and was just skipping into Bed. 1676Shadwell Virtuoso i. i, I'll do it instantly, in the twinkling of a Bed-staff. |