Word.ws English Dictionary

bed-blocker

bed-blocker is the alternative form of bed blocker.

Meaning of bed blocker

Noun

bed blocker (plural bed blockers)

  1. (UK, derogatory, idiomatic, public policy) An elderly hospitalized person who is too infirm to return home but not sufficiently ill to necessitate continued hospitalization, creating a situation in which his or her hospital stay is prolonged while authorities or relatives search for a suitable placement amid the scarce resources of nursing homes or other long-term care facilities.
    • A 72-year-old "bed blocker" was yesterday ordered to vacate the hospital bed he has refused to leave for three years, despite being in good health.2006 March 7, Jacqueline Maley, “Court evicts NHS 'bed blocker'”, in The Guardian, UK, retrieved 02 Dec 2012

Forms of bed-blocker

pluralbed-blockers

Questions about bed-blocker

What is bed-blocker the alternative form of?
Bed-blocker is the alternative form of bed blocker.

Words near bed-blocker in the dictionary

  1. bed-and-breakfasted
  2. bed-and-breakfasting
  3. bed-and-breakfasts
  4. bed-bath
  5. bed-baths
  6. bed-blocker
  7. bed-blockers
  8. bed-breaking
  9. bed-bug
  10. bed-bugs
  11. bed-chamber

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bed-blocker (page history and authors); bed blocker (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “bed-blocker.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bed-blocker. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.