Bed
A Dictionary of Law · Henry Campbell Black · 1891
A Dictionary of Law
The hollow or channel of a watercourse; the depression between the banks worn by the regular and usual flow of the water. “The bed is that soil so usually covered by water as to be distinguishable from the banks by the character of the soil, or vegetation, or both, produced by the common presence and action of flowing water.”
Curtis, J., 13 Tow. 426.
The term also occurs in the phrase “divorce from bed and board,” @ mensa ef thoro; where it seems to indicate the right of cohabitation or marital intercourse.