Noun

(cronies)

(informal) Close friend.

* Washington Irving

He soon found his former cronies , though all rather the worse for the wear and tear of time.

(informal) Trusted companion or partner in a criminal organization.

(obsolete) An old woman; a crone.

* Burton

Marry not an old crony .

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.}}