BEEF

beef, beef cattle

(noun) cattle that are reared for their meat

gripe, kick, beef, bitch, squawk

(noun) informal terms for objecting; “I have a gripe about the service here”

beef, boeuf

(noun) meat from an adult domestic bovine

gripe, bitch, grouse, crab, beef, squawk, bellyache, holler

(verb) complain; “What was he hollering about?”

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Noun

beef (countable and uncountable, plural beef or beefs or beeves)

(uncountable) The meat from a cow, bull, or other bovine.

(in the meat industry, on product packaging) The edible portions of a cow (including those which are not meat).

(uncountable) Bovine animals.

(archaic, countable, plural: beeves) A single bovine (cow or bull) being raised for its meat.

(by extension, slang, uncountable) Muscle or musculature; size, strength or potency.

(figurative, slang, uncountable) Essence, content; the important part of a document or project.

(slang, countable or uncountable, plural: beefs) A grudge; dislike (of something or someone); lack of faith or trust (in something or someone); a reason for a dislike or grudge. (often + with)

Synonyms

• (meat of a cow): cowflesh

• (meat of an ox): oxflesh

Hyponyms

• (meat of a cow): veal

Verb

beef (third-person singular simple present beefs, present participle beefing, simple past and past participle beefed)

(intransitive) To complain.

(transitive) To add weight or strength to; to beef up.

(intransitive, slang) To fart; break wind.

(African-American Vernacular, intransitive, slang) To feud or hold a grudge against.

(intransitive, chiefly, Yorkshire) To cry

(transitive, slang) To fail or mess up.

Adjective

beef (not comparable)

Being a bovine animal that is being raised for its meat.

Producing or known for raising lots of beef.

Consisting of or containing beef as an ingredient.

Anagrams

• Feeb, feeb

Source: Wiktionary


Beef, n. Etym: [OE. boef, befe, beef, OF. boef, buef, F. b, fr. L. bos, bovis, ox; akin to Gr. , Skr. g cow, and E. cow. See 2d Cow.]

1. An animal of the genus Bos, especially the common species, B. taurus, including the bull, cow, and ox, in their full grown state; esp., an ox or cow fattened for food.

Note: [In this, which is the original sense, the word has a plural, beeves (.] A herd of beeves, fair oxen and fair kine. Milton.

2. The flesh of an ox, or cow, or of any adult bovine animal, when slaughtered for food.

Note: [In this sense, the word has no plural.] "Great meals of beef." Shak.

3. Applied colloquially to human flesh.

Beef, a.

Definition: Of, pertaining to, or resembling, beef. Beef tea, essence of beef, or strong beef broth.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



RESET




Word of the Day

4 April 2025

GUILLOTINE

(verb) kill by cutting the head off with a guillotine; “The French guillotined many Vietnamese while they occupied the country”


coffee icon

Coffee Trivia

The earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking as the modern beverage appeared in modern-day Yemen. In the middle of the 15th century in Sufi shrines where coffee seeds were first roasted and brewed for drinking. The Yemenis procured the coffee beans from the Ethiopian Highlands.

coffee icon