bedfellow

[ bed-fel-oh ]

/ ˈbɛdˌfɛl oʊ /

Also called bedmate. a person who shares one's bed.

an associate or collaborator, especially one who forms a temporary alliance for reasons of expediency: Politics makes strange bedfellows.

Origin of bedfellow

First recorded in 1400–50, bedfellow is from the late Middle English word bedfelow. See bed, fellow

The fox agreed to this, but when Ch awoke in the morning his bedfellow had already disappeared.

Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (Volumes I and II) |Songling Pu
At length the elder brother wearied of this diversion and aroused his bedfellow.

Manasseh |Maurus Jokai
Her conscience pricked her, and a prickly conscience is just as unhappy a bedfellow as a porcupine would be.

Nan Sherwood at Lakeview Hall |Annie Roe Carr
Why do they hardly feel that they have prayed if company, or a bedfellow, on a journey, keeps them from using oral prayer?

Bertha and Her Baptism |Nehemiah Adams

This command was also obeyed, although, as may be readily supposed, she did not much relish such a bedfellow.

Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales |David Goodger (goodger@python.org)

bedfellow

/ (ˈbɛdˌfɛləʊ) /

a person with whom one shares a bed

a temporary ally or associate