[f. BED sb. + MAKER.]
1. One who constructs beds.
c. 1500. Cocke Lorelles B. (1843), 9. Bedmakers, fedbed makers, and wyre drawers; Founders and broche makers.
2. One who arranges beds for use again, after they have been slept in; the official name in the English universities for old women or men who make the beds and sweep the rooms in college.
1465. Mann. & Househ. Exp., 184. Iteme the bede-maker a pelow.
1552. Huloet, Bedde maker, Lectisterniator.
1678. Yng. Mans Call., 107. His health is his best bed-maker, that makes his bed so easie to rest on.
1691. Case of Exeter Coll., 18. For fear she should lose her place of Bed-maker.
1716. Cibber, Love makes Man, I. i. 21. He never spoke six Words to any Woman in his Life, but his Bed-maker.
1789. Mrs. Piozzi, Journ. France, II. 118. A person not unlike an Oxford or Cambridge bed-maker.
1825. Bentham, Ration. Rew., 337. The barbers, cooks, bed-makers, errand-boys, and other unlettered retainers to the university, are sworn in English to the observance of these Latin statutes.
So Bed-making.
1670. Eachard, Cont. Clergy, 16. To prevent sizars over heating their brains: bedmaking, chamber-sweeping, and water-fetching, were doubtless great preservatives.
1691. Case of Exeter Coll., 19. Her Employ of Bed-making in Exeter Colledge.
1883. Glasgow Wkly. Her., 21 April, 8/4. Ladies Baking, Cooking and Bedmaking Aprons.
1885. Oxf. Students Handbk., 235. In addition, £7 a year for bedmaking.