Meaning of bedstaff | Babel Free

Definitions

bedpost.

obsolete

Examples

“Hostess, accommodate us with a bedstaff.”

“Say there is no virtue in cudgels and bedstaves.”

“The groom of the wardrobe brings in the loose straw and lays it reverently at the foot of the bed. The gentleman-usher draws back the curtains. Two squires stand by the bedhead and two yeomen of the guard at the foot. One of these, with the help of the yeomen of the chamber, carefully forms the truss, and rolls up and down on it to make it smooth and ensure that no dagger or such are hidden in it....A canvas is laid over the straw, then the feather-bed, which is smoothed with a bedstaff.”

“Wooden poles or 'bed-staves' were used, pushed inside the lower frame, or into holes in the frame, to hold it [the bedding] all on. They are commonly mentioned in connection with beds in 16th and 17th century inventories, but no surviving examples of bedstaves are known to the author in England, although some survive in Sweden.”

CEFR level