put (someone or something) to bed

put (someone or something) to bed

1. To help someone, typically a child, prepare for and get into bed at night. I'll give you a call after I put the kids to bed. Tom had a bit too much to drink, so I'm going to put him to bed.2. To complete something or some initial preparatory phase. I thought you'd put the proofreading for that edition to bed weeks ago! We should be able to put this project to bed next week.3. To stop discussing, thinking about, or focusing on something. OK, I think we have to agree to disagree. Let's just put the issue to bed and stop arguing. Why are you still being so jealous? I thought we'd put this all to bed ages ago.See also: bed, put

put someone to bed

 and send someone to bedto make someone go to bed. Mother put Jimmy to bed and kissed him. Sally was naughty and was sent to bed.See also: bed, put

put something to bed

Fig. to complete work on something and send it on to the next step in production, especially in publishing. (From put someone to bed.) This week's edition is finished. Let's put it to bed. Finish the editing of this book and put it to bed.See also: bed, put

put to bed

Complete something and either set it aside or send it on to the next step, as in We put the magazine to bed at ten, or They said they'd put the whole project to bed at least a month ago. This expression, transferring nighttime retirement to other kinds of completion, was first applied to a newspaper, where it meant "send to press," that is, start to print. [Mid-1900s] See also: bed, put

put something to bed

If you put a plan or task to bed, you achieve it or complete it successfully. Before putting the agreement to bed, we still had to satisfy Fran Murray. Note: On an old-style printing press, the bed is the flat part that holds the type. If journalists talk about putting a newspaper or magazine to bed, they are talking about making the final changes before printing. See also: bed, put, something

put to bed

Informal 1. To make final preparations for the printing of (a newspaper, for example).2. To make final preparations for completing (a project).See also: bed, put