strange bedfellows

English

Etymology

1610, from Shakespeare's The Tempest.[1]

Pronunciation
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Noun

strange bedfellows pl (normally plural, singular strange bedfellow)

  1. (idiomatic) An unusual combination or political alliance.
    • 1996, Tony Downey, Nigel Smith, Russia and the USSR, 1900-1995, Oxford University Press, USA, →ISBN, page 66:
      The USA and the USSR were strange bedfellows. They were united only in their opposition to Hitler and Fascism.
    • 2002, Teresa Brennan, Between Feminism and Psychoanalysis, Routledge, →ISBN:
      Lacan and feminism: strange bedfellows? There never was an alliance between the person Lacan and feminism.

Translations

See also

References
  1. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 9:
    Alas, the storm is come again! My best way is to creep under his gaberdine; there is no other shelter hereabout: misery acquaints a man with strange bed-fellows.
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