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Added 9 October 2026

beef

/biːf/ noun

In Latin: būbula Wiktionary

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about beef at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

The meat from cattle or other bovines; especially, that from adults.
I love eating beef.
The edible portions of a cow (including those which are not meat).
lean finely textured beef
Muscle or musculature; size, strength or potency.
Put some beef into it! We've got to get the car over the bump.

verb

To complain.
To add weight or strength to.
To fart; break wind.
Ugh, who just beefed in here?

adjective

Being a bovine animal that is being raised for its meat.
We bought three beef calves this morning.
Producing or known for raising lots of beef.
beef farms
Consisting of or containing beef as an ingredient.
beef stew

Origin

From Middle English beef, bef, beof, borrowed from Anglo-Norman beof, Old French buef, boef (“ox”) (modern French bœuf); from Latin bovem (“ox”), from Proto-Italic *gʷōs, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws. Doublet of cow. Beef in the sense of “a grudge, argument” was originally an American slang expression: * attested as a verb “to complain” in 1888: “He'll beef an' kick like a steer an' let on he won't never wear 'em.”— New York World, 13 May; * attested as a noun “complaint, protest, grievance, sim.” in 1899: “He made a Horrible Beef because he couldn't get Loaf Sugar for his Coffee.”—Fables in Slang (1900) by George Ade, page 80.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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