Definition of "bede"

Thus originated the alms-(or bede-) houses so frequently met with in the retired villages of England.

1875 March, Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, volume 15, number 87

By Allah thy bede is good indeed and right is thy rede!

1885–1888, Richard F[rancis] Burton, transl. and editor, A Plain and Literal Translation of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, now Entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night […], Shammar edition, volume (please specify the volume), [London]: […] Burton Club […]

[…] because miracles had frequently been done at his burial-place, even at the bede-house where he was buried.

2008, Time to Ditch St. George

Because of the length of the original rosary, it became customary to pay someone, usually a resident of an almshouse, to recite the prayers. These people were referred to as bede women or men, and it was they who made the first bead flowers.

2011, Where Did Beaded Flowers Come From?

In Pilgrimage from towne to towne: With offring and with Drilon: To them they bable on their bedes: That they may helpe them in their nedes.

1566, Sir David Lindsay, A Dialogue betweene Experience and a Courtier

Or doe they use their Bedes alone to finde That tale of Paters which they seldome minde?

1642, William Prynne, A Pleasant Purge, for a Roman Catholike, to Evacuate His Evill Humours, page 20

Towards a rude hermitage he made To fetch the priest unto his need, To bury her and say her bede

1870, William Morris, The Earthly Paradise

Then the Little Serving Maid She went and laid her down, With her cross and her bede, In her new courting gown.

1910, Hilaire Belloc, “The Little Serving Maid”, in Verses, page 39

Sir, a bargan bede I you, / by it if ye willSir, I offer you a bargain. Buy it if you like.

15th c., “Conspiracio [The Conspiracy]”, in Wakefield Mystery Plays; Re-edited in George England, Alfred W. Pollard, editors, The Towneley Plays (Early English Text Society Extra Series; LXXI), London: […] Oxford University Press, 1897, page 210, lines 208–209

A turnement were best to bede.(please add an English translation of this quotation)

1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [Le Morte Darthur], (please specify the book number), [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: David Nutt, […], 1889,

They of londone […] boden hem to ben lyht of herte.

1450, Merlin