Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

   5. A person duly commissioned to hold courts, or to try and
      decide controversies and administer justice.

   Note: This title is given to the judges of the common law
         courts in England and in the United States, and extends
         to judicial officers and magistrates of every grade.

   {Bed of justice}. See under {Bed}.

   {Chief justice}. See in the Vocabulary.

   {Justice of the peace} (Law), a judicial officer or
      subordinate magistrate appointed for the conservation of
      the peace in a specified district, with other incidental
      powers specified in his commission. In the United States a
      justice of the peace has jurisdiction to adjudicate
      certain minor cases, commit offenders, etc.

   Syn: Equity; law; right; rectitude; honesty; integrity;
        uprightness; fairness; impartiality.

   Usage: {Justice}, {Equity}, {Law}. Justice and equity are the
          same; but human laws, though designed to secure
          justice, are of necessity imperfect, and hence what is
          strictly legal is at times far from being equitable or
          just. Here a court of equity comes in to redress the
          grievances. It does so, as distinguished from courts
          of law; and as the latter are often styled courts of
          justice, some have fancied that there is in this case
          a conflict between justice and equity. The real
          conflict is against the working of the law; this a
          court of equity brings into accordance with the claims
          of justice. It would be an unfortunate use of language
          which should lead any one to imagine he might have
          justice on his side while practicing iniquity
          (inequity). {Justice}, {Rectitude}. Rectitude, in its
          widest sense, is one of the most comprehensive words
          in our language, denoting absolute conformity to the
          rule of right in principle and practice. Justice
          refers more especially to the carrying out of law, and
          has been considered by moralists as of three kinds:
          (1) Commutative justice, which gives every man his own
          property, including things pledged by promise. (2)
          Distributive justice, which gives every man his exact
          deserts. (3) General justice, which carries out all
          the ends of law, though not in every case through the
          precise channels of commutative or distributive
          justice; as we see often done by a parent or a ruler
          in his dealings with those who are subject to his
          control.

Bed \Bed\, n. [AS. bed, bedd; akin to OS. bed, D. bed, bedde,
   Icel. be?r, Dan. bed, Sw. b["a]dd, Goth. badi, OHG. betti, G.
   bett, bette, bed, beet a plat of ground; all of uncertain
   origin.]
   1. An article of furniture to sleep or take rest in or on; a
      couch. Specifically: A sack or mattress, filled with some
      soft material, in distinction from the bedstead on which
      it is placed (as, a feather bed), or this with the
      bedclothes added. In a general sense, any thing or place
      used for sleeping or reclining on or in, as a quantity of
      hay, straw, leaves, or twigs.

            And made for him [a horse] a leafy bed. --Byron.

            I wash, wring, brew, bake, . . . make the beds.
                                                  --Shak.

            In bed he slept not for my urging it. --Shak.

   2. (Used as the symbol of matrimony) Marriage.

            George, the eldest son of his second bed.
                                                  --Clarendon.

   3. A plat or level piece of ground in a garden, usually a
      little raised above the adjoining ground. ``Beds of
      hyacinth and roses.'' --Milton.

   4. A mass or heap of anything arranged like a bed; as, a bed
      of ashes or coals.

   5. The bottom of a watercourse, or of any body of water; as,
      the bed of a river.

            So sinks the daystar in the ocean bed. --Milton.

   6. (Geol.) A layer or seam, or a horizontal stratum between
      layers; as, a bed of coal, iron, etc.

   7. (Gun.) See {Gun carriage}, and {Mortar bed}.

   8. (Masonry)
      (a) The horizontal surface of a building stone; as, the
          upper and lower beds.
      (b) A course of stone or brick in a wall.
      (c) The place or material in which a block or brick is
          laid.
      (d) The lower surface of a brick, slate, or tile.
          --Knight.

   9. (Mech.) The foundation or the more solid and fixed part or
      framing of a machine; or a part on which something is laid
      or supported; as, the bed of an engine.

   10. The superficial earthwork, or ballast, of a railroad.

   11. (Printing) The flat part of the press, on which the form
       is laid.

   Note: Bed is much used adjectively or in combination; as, bed
         key or bedkey; bed wrench or bedwrench; bedchamber;
         bedmaker, etc.

   {Bed of justice} (French Hist.), the throne (F. lit bed)
      occupied by the king when sitting in one of his
      parliaments (judicial courts); hence, a session of a
      refractory parliament, at which the king was present for
      the purpose of causing his decrees to be registered.

   {To be brought to bed}, to be delivered of a child; -- often
      followed by of; as, to be brought to bed of a son.

   {To make a bed}, to prepare a bed; to arrange or put in order
      a bed and its bedding.

   {From bed and board} (Law), a phrase applied to a separation
      by partial divorce of man and wife, without dissolving the
      bonds of matrimony. If such a divorce (now commonly called
      a judicial separation) be granted at the instance of the
      wife, she may have alimony.