Strange bedfellows
Suggest a CorrectionMeaning
An unlikely, surprising or uneasy pairing of people, groups or ideas, often created by necessity or shared interest. Often used in political reporting. It need not imply sleeping together or any sexual relationship. Regional use: Origin in English drama; now international English.
Origin
In The Tempest, written around 1610-11, Trinculo shelters beside Caliban and observes that misery acquaints a man with 'strange bedfellows'. Bedfellow was literal in the scene, but the line readily supported figurative descriptions of unlikely association. The later proverbs 'adversity makes strange bedfellows' and 'politics makes strange bedfellows' are adaptations, not Shakespeare's exact wording.
Research Sources
Variants
- Make strange bedfellows
- Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows
- Politics makes strange bedfellows
Usage Examples
- The planning dispute made strange bedfellows of developers and conservationists.
- Necessity turned the two commercial rivals into strange bedfellows.
- The coalition's strange bedfellows agreed on reform but little else.