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Is it necessary that a phrase used as idiom always works as an idiom? Like I want to say:

Don't linger in bed.

I mean to say that: Get up now. Hurry up. Don't delay getting up. Don't sleep too much.

The child I am waking up is delaying getting up.

But the problem is that 'in bed' also means "to have sex".

https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/bed_1?q=bed

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/in-bed#:~:text=phrase%20%5Bverb%2Dlink%20PHRASE%2C,are%20having%20sex%20in%20bed.

If the situation is clear that father is waking his child but the child is not waking up, will this [Don't linger in bed.] be acceptable?

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    The Oxford Learners link gives enough examples to make it clear that 'in bed' is used in many other contexts than sex. No-one would think that you intended that meaning if you were speaking of/to a child.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Sep 25, 2020 at 9:32
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    If "in bed" was only (or mainly) used in connection with having sex, people would be too embarrassed to buy sheets, blankets, duvets (and their covers), mattresses, pillows, etc, and the bedroom would be written as "the b**room"
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Sep 25, 2020 at 10:12
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    @MichaelHarvey Even the word "sex" isn't used exclusively in connection with having sex, although of course the use of the term on forms (now often "gender") has long been a topic of schoolboy humour.
    – rjpond
    Commented Sep 25, 2020 at 10:21
  • In 1964 I sat a geometry test at school. The desks were antiques where two boys sat side by side. To prevent cheating we were paired with boys from a different class taking a different test. My new companion was highly amused by one question he showed me involving a figure four of whose points were labelled ABED.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Sep 25, 2020 at 11:05
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    And there's the old joke about a sick woman being described as 'in bed under the doctor'.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Sep 25, 2020 at 13:09

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As others said in the comments, there is no need to worry about any sexual connotations of "in bed." You're talking to a child and you're clearly using in bed in its normal, literal sense.

However, I find most of your proposed alternatives more idiomatic than "don't linger in bed." "Get up now," "hurry up" and "don't sleep too [long]" all sound better to my ear.

There's also the related word dawdle, which means:

to do something or go somewhere very slowly, taking more time than is necessary:

  • Stop dawdling! You'll be late for school!

So another alternative would be "don't dawdle in bed" or simply "don't dawdle!" There are many other colloquial alternatives such as "you'd better get moving!" but I don't want to complicate the answer too much.

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    When I was a boy my mother used to say 'don't be a slug-a-bed' but I guess that's too old fashioned for modern people.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Sep 25, 2020 at 14:00

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