Word.ws English Dictionary

strawbed

strawbed noun: a mattress made of dry straw in a cloth sack, often used beneath a featherbed or other softer mattress.

Noun

strawbed (plural strawbeds)

  1. A mattress made of dry straw in a cloth sack, often used beneath a featherbed or other softer mattress.
    • The lying-in woman was not allowed to lie in bed, but a strawbed was prepared for her on the floor.1946, Knut Liestøl, Scottish and Norwegian Ballads - Issues 1-4, page 157
    • To cut down labor pains , put something made of iron or steel between the strawbed and the featherbed.1967, North Carolina Folklore - Volumes 15-18, page 180
  2. (Bahamas) Childbirth.
    • An old woman called "Ala Ju" (Mother Julia) walked three miles to get me a sample of the Granny Bush (Croton linearis), whose leaves are steeped and given to women for nine days after childbirth, or "strawbed" as it is termed here.1960, Bahamas Handbook and Businessman's Annual
    • It grows profusely in the Bahamas. It is used for "building up men's energy and body" and as a sponge bath for women, "after they come out of strawbed".1969, Mrs. Leslie Higgs, Bush Medicine in the Bahamas, page 15

Examples of strawbed in a sentence

  • It is very difficult for me to make my strawbed in accordance with military regulations.1987, Karl Fuchs, Horst Fuchs Richardson, Dennis E. Showalter, Sieg Heil!: war letters of Tank Gunner Karl Fuchs, 1937-1941, page 24:
  • Molitor escaped and "hid in the strawbed of his French mistress" before inexplicably leaving Germany and "arriving safely" in New York.1990, Michigan History - Volumes 74-75, page 8:
  • "Strawbed fever" results from an infection caught in "strawbed" (childbirth).1994, Patricia Glinton-Meicholas, How to be a True-true Bahamian, page 47:

Forms of strawbed

pluralstrawbeds
alternative formstraw-bed
alternative formstraw bed

Origin of strawbed

From straw + bed.

Questions about strawbed

What does strawbed mean?
Strawbed means a mattress made of dry straw in a cloth sack, often used beneath a featherbed or other softer mattress.
How do you use strawbed in a sentence?
It is very difficult for me to make my strawbed in accordance with military regulations.
What part of speech is strawbed?
Strawbed is a noun.
What is the plural of strawbed?
The plural of strawbed is strawbeds.

Words near strawbed in the dictionary

  1. straw-splitting
  2. strawb
  3. strawbale
  4. strawbales
  5. strawbana
  6. strawbed
  7. strawbeds
  8. strawberried
  9. strawberrier
  10. strawberries
  11. strawberries and cream

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: strawbed (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: “strawbed.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/strawbed. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.