Word.ws English Dictionary

bed of justice

bed of justice noun: a special parliamentary session headed by the king in pre-Revolutionary France, where royal edicts could be forcibly registered.

Noun

bed of justice (plural beds of justice)

  1. A special parliamentary session headed by the king in pre-Revolutionary France, where royal edicts could be forcibly registered.
    • when [...] he himself announced that the king would hold a Bed of Justice to compel the instant registration of the necessary edicts, the Parliament became more exasperated than ever.1866, Charles Duke Yonge, The History of France under the Bourbons, pages 43–4
    • D'Argenson was prepared with advice. ‘A bed of justice will suffice, Highness.’1949, Rafael Sabatini, The Gamester, Stratus Books 2001, p. 137

Forms of bed of justice

pluralbeds of justice

Origin of bed of justice

Calque of French lit de justice, referring to the throne occupied by the king when sitting in one of his judicial courts.

Questions about bed of justice

What does bed of justice mean?
Bed of justice means a special parliamentary session headed by the king in pre-Revolutionary France, where royal edicts could be forcibly registered.
What part of speech is bed of justice?
Bed of justice is a noun.
What is the plural of bed of justice?
The plural of bed of justice is beds of justice.

Words near bed of justice in the dictionary

  1. bed loads
  2. bed moulding
  3. bed mouldings
  4. bed of down
  5. bed of honour
  6. bed of justice
  7. bed of nails
  8. bed of roses
  9. bed out
  10. bed pad
  11. bed pads

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bed of justice (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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