Definition of "bedfellow"
bedfellow
noun
plural bedfellows
One with whom one shares a bed.
Quotations
Yong budding Virgin, faire, and freſh,& ſweet, / Whether away, or whether is thy aboade? / Happy the Parents of ſo faire a childe; / Happier the man whom fauourable ſtars / Alot thee for his louely bedfellow.
c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene v], page 226
Car[azie]. / In the day I waite on my Lady when ſhe eates, / Carry her pantophles, beare vp her trayne / Sing her aſleepe at night, and when ſhe pleaſes / I am her bedfellow. / Gaz[et]. / How? her bedfellow, / And lye with her? / Car[azie]. / Yes, and lye with her.
1630, Philip Massinger, The Renegado, a Tragæ Comedie. As It Hath Beene Often Acted by the Queenes Maiesties Seruants, at the Priuate Play-house in Drurye-Lane., London: […] A[ugustine] M[athewes] for Iohn Waterson, […], act III, scene IV
(by extension) An associate, often an otherwise improbable one.
Quotations
Certain aspects of reprint publishing are more akin to university press publishing than to any other sector of the publishing industry, but the relationships between the two frequently create unwilling bedfellows.
1972, Carol A. Nemeyer, Scholarly Reprint Publishing in the United States, New York, N.Y.: R. R. Bowker Co., page 8