Link Centre Dictionary

bedfellow

bed·fel·low

US/ˈbɛdˌfɛloʊ/ uncommon

noun

1.

a temporary associate

  • “politics makes strange bedfellows”
2.

a person with whom you share a bed

Origin

From Middle English bedfelawe, equivalent to bed + fellow. Sense 2 "associate, especially improbable" is influenced by strange bedfellow and its allusion to Shakespeare's The Tempest.

Phrases

  • strange bedfellow

Related words

Broader terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.