a. (and sb.) Obs. exc. dial. [ME. bedlawere, f. BED + ? ON. lag lying: cf. MHG. betteliger, -ic, G. bettläger, -ig, in same sense.] Bed-ridden; a person confined to bed.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 28. Bedlawyr, decumbens.
1447. Bokenham, Seyntys (1835), 288. Seke wummen … wych bedlaure dede lye.
1468. Medulla Gram., Clinicus, a bedlawere.
1474. Act. Audit. 36 (Jam.). Johne of Kerss wes seke and bedlare.
1868. G. Macdonald, Seaboard Parish, I. x. 146. Two patients, who considered themselves bedlars … bedridden, that is.
b. Comb. † Bedlawerman.
1419. in Promp. Parv., 28. Item lego cuilibet pauperum vocatorum bedlawermen … iiij d.
