Noun

(en noun)

One with whom one shares a bed.

* 1599 Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew , .

''Young budding virgin, fair and fresh and sweet,

''Whither away, or where is thy abode?

''Happy the parents of so fair a child;

''Happier the man whom favourable stars

Allot thee for his lovely bed-fellow .

An associate, often an otherwise improbable one.

* 1873' ''They say that "misfortune makes men acquainted with strange '''bedfellows ". The old hereditary Whig Cabinet ministers must, no doubt, by this time have learned to feel themselves at home with strange neighbours at their elbows.'' — Anthony Trollope, ''Phineas Redux , Chapter 40.

* {{quote-news

, year=2011 , date=February 12 , author=Les Roopanarine , title=Birmingham 1 - 0 Stoke , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=Statistics and truth can be uneasy bedfellows when it comes to football, but one fact could not be ignored: neither side has a player with more than seven goals to his name.}}

Noun

(en-noun)

(dated) A man with a reputation for fine dress and etiquette; a dandy or fop.

* 1811 , Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility , chapter 21

“I do not comprehend the meaning of the word. But this I can say, that if he ever was a beau before he married, he is one still, for there is not the smallest alteration in him.”

“Oh! dear! one never thinks of married mens’(SIC) being beaux —they have something else to do.”

(dated) A male lover; a boyfriend.

* 1917 , Kate Douglas Wiggin, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm , p. 142:

Hannah's beau takes all her time 'n' thought, and when she gits a husband her mother'll be out o' sight and out o' mind.

* 2009 , Philippa Bourke, Monsters and Critics [http://www.monstersandcritics.com/people/news/article_1518335.php/Kristin-Davis-takes-cover-on-beach-with-beau#ixzz0ZRsqa5SS], Dec 10, 2009:

Kristin Davis has taken time out to enjoy the surf and sand with her Australian beau , photographer Russell James.

A male escort.