bed and board

English

Etymology

From Middle English bed and bord.

Noun

bed and board (uncountable)

  1. A place to sleep and eat; bed and breakfast; the services provided by an inn or similar establishment.
    • 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “ch. 4, Abbot Hugo”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book II (The Ancient Monk):
      For, alas, the Ideal always has to grow in the Real, and to seek out its bed and board there, often in a very sorry way. No beautifullest Poet is a Bird-of-Paradise, living on perfumes; sleeping in the aether with outspread wings. The Heroic, independent of bed and board, is found in Drury Lane Theatre only
  2. Full connubial relations.

Derived terms

Translations

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