a. (sb.) Forms: 4 bedreden, -redden, -raden, 5 bedredene, -redyn, -ryden, 8 bedridden. [L. BEDRID, the -en being added on the analogy of ppl. adjs.]
A. adj. = BEDRID 1.
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 808. When he is seke, and bedreden lys.
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. VIII. 108. A bedreden womman.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., lxxxv. 459. He laye bedredene vij. yere.
1711. F. Fuller, Med. Gymn., 28. A kind of bedridden Creature.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 25. The bedridden may hear divine service in their beds.
1856. R. Vaughan, Mystics (1860), I. 239. He tells a bedridden man to climb the mountains.
fig. 1816. Coleridge, Lay Serm., 319. Truths considered as so true as to lose all the powers of truth, and lie bedridden in the dormitory of the soul.
† B. as sb. A bedridden person. Obs. rare.
1429. Wills & Inv. N. C. (1835), 78. Euery hows of almouse ordeynet for bedrydens.