A sickbed is the bed where someone stays while recovering from an illness or injury. When you're too sick to go to school or do your normal activities, you might spend days in your sickbed, resting under warm blankets while your body fights off the flu or heals from a broken leg.

The word describes being confined to bed during a longer illness or injury, when you need extended rest to recover. Someone stuck in their sickbed might read books, drink soup, and wait impatiently to feel well enough to rejoin the world. Throughout history, people have made important decisions from their sickbeds: Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of State, William Seward, helped guide the country during the Civil War even while recovering from a serious carriage accident. Artists and writers have created works from their sickbeds when illness kept them from moving around freely.

The word can sound a bit old-fashioned, but it perfectly captures that specific place where healing happens, where you're bedridden (unable to leave your bed) until you recover your strength.