[f. BED sb. + MAKER.]

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  1.  One who constructs beds.

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c. 1500.  Cocke Lorelles B. (1843), 9. Bedmakers, fedbed makers, and wyre drawers; Founders … and broche makers.

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  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.

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1465.  Mann. & Househ. Exp., 184. Iteme … the bede-maker a pelow.

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1552.  Huloet, Bedde maker, Lectisterniator.

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1678.  Yng. Mans Call., 107. His health … is his best bed-maker, that makes his bed so easie to rest on.

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1691.  Case of Exeter Coll., 18. For fear she should … lose her place of Bed-maker.

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1716.  Cibber, Love makes Man, I. i. 21. He never spoke six Words to any Woman in his Life, but his Bed-maker.

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1789.  Mrs. Piozzi, Journ. France, II. 118. A person not unlike an Oxford or Cambridge bed-maker.

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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.

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  So Bed-making.

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1670.  Eachard, Cont. Clergy, 16. To prevent sizars over heating their brains: bedmaking, chamber-sweeping, and water-fetching, were doubtless great preservatives.

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1691.  Case of Exeter Coll., 19. Her Employ of Bed-making in Exeter Colledge.

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1883.  Glasgow Wkly. Her., 21 April, 8/4. Ladies’ Baking, Cooking and Bedmaking Aprons.

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1885.  Oxf. Student’s Handbk., 235. In addition, £7 a year for bedmaking.

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