bed and board

1. A place to sleep and get daily meals, or the cost of such. Well, the job doesn't pay very much but it provides bed and board, so I'm saving most of the money I earn. Transportation was free, but bed and board set me back $700. I really don't think you've set aside enough money. Have you accounted for bed and board?

2. The house as a symbol of the duties and sanctity of marriage. He left bed and board after 10 years of marriage. If you have bed and board, why would you give all that up for a tawdry affair? No one cares about bed and board as much as our grandparents' generation did. Just look at the divorce rate.

bed and board

Lodging and meals, as in Housekeepers usually earn a standard salary in addition to bed and board. This phrase was first recorded in the York Manual (c. 1403), which stipulated certain connubial duties: "Her I take ... to be my wedded wife, to hold to have at bed and at board." Later bed was used merely to denote a place to sleep.

bed and board

Lodging and food; by extension, the essentials one works for. Originally the term meant the full connubial rights of a wife as mistress of her household. The marriage service in the York Manual (ca. 1403) states: “Here I take . . . to be my wedded wyfe, to hald and to have at bed and at borde, for fayrer for layther, for better for wers . . . till ded us depart.”