beef
Americannoun
-
beeves,
plural
-
beefs
plural
-
the flesh of a cow, steer, or bull raised and killed for its meat.
-
an adult cow, steer, or bull raised for its meat.
-
Informal.
-
brawn; muscular strength.
-
strength; power.
-
weight, as of a person.
-
human flesh.
-
-
Slang.
-
a complaint.
-
an argument or dispute.
-
verb (used without object)
-
beefs,
present (3rd person singular)
-
beefed,
past participle, past
-
beefing
present participle
verb phrase
noun
-
the flesh of various bovine animals, esp the cow, when killed for eating
-
an adult ox, bull, cow, etc, reared for its meat
-
informal human flesh, esp when muscular
-
a complaint
verb
-
slang (intr) to complain, esp repeatedly
he was beefing about his tax
-
informal to strengthen; reinforce
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
beefsimple
-
beefssimple
-
have beefedperfect
-
has beefedperfect
-
am beefingprogressive
-
are beefingprogressive
-
is beefingprogressive
-
have been beefingperfect progressive
-
has been beefingperfect progressive
Past
-
beefedsimple
-
had beefedperfect
-
was beefingprogressive
-
were beefingprogressive
-
had been beefingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of beef
First recorded in 1250–1300; 1885–90 beef for def. 5; Middle English, from Anglo-French beof, Old French boef, from Latin bov- (stem of bōs ) “ox, cow”; akin to cow 1
Explanation
Beef is meat from a cow. It's also a word for a complaint. If you have a beef with someone, you’re not sharing a steak, you have a gripe. Just don’t beef to a cow; her problems are worse. Beef is a type of meat from cattle. If you've ever had a hamburger, you've had beef. The word beef comes from the Old French word buef, which became the word for basically, cow meat. Beef is to cow as pork is to pig or mutton is to sheep. On the other hand, if you have a beef with someone, you have a complaint. Beefing is expressing such feelings.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Food sources such as chicken, beef, salmon and tofu contain all the essential amino acids.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 14, 2026
"At that time there was a beef. A week or two after he went to see Connor Palfrey and they squashed their beef," he said, meaning they resolved the issue.
From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026
Many chefs have even created their own versions, replacing the original’s rethermalized ground beef and nacho cheese sauce with fussed-over ingredients like pernil, bulgogi, birria and scratchmade salsas or sauces.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
Even accounting for fishmeal and transportation to the U.S., the production of certain farmed fish, including tilapia and Atlantic salmon, emits less greenhouse gas per pound than beef or pork.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026
Rabiya thinks cooked carrots are disgusting and picked them all out, but I love the way the slightly sweet rice mixes with salty ground beef kabobs and chunks of juicy chicken.
From "Amina's Song" by Hena Khan
The new law beefs up the penalties for those that flout the ban.
From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026
American business and Silicon Valley, in particular, are littered with classic beefs fueled by ambition, greed and green-eyed jealousy: the late Steve Jobs vs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 7, 2026
He hasn’t lost the scorched-earth spirit of beefs with Drake but now puts that venom in the full widescreen scope of his life and work.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 22, 2024
A large portion of this is because the hip-hop industry has mistreated Megan with exploitative record deals, beefs with rappers and the spread of misinformation online.
From Salon ● Nov. 1, 2024
In my lunch group, we dissected whatever had gone on that morning at school, any beefs we had with teachers, any assignments that struck us as useless.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
But Bessent’s image of immigrants smuggling their infected beeves across the border is transparent fantasy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 19, 2025
He described it as “a few hundred acres of dirt, some clusters of old barns and outbuildings… a few beeves and hogs or a flock of sheep.”
From Salon ● Oct. 18, 2012
The Grand Championship prize for best of baby beeves went to an Aberdeen-Angus.
From Time Magazine Archive
None of these prize beeves has yet offered the Angel a bout, but if he mops up the rest of the herd, the champs may have to face him or quit.
From Time Magazine Archive
But if you raid the beeves, I see destruction for ship and crew.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
The rules take effect as Beijing has beefed up its export control regime—including on items like rare-earth minerals—and enacted a network of laws to prevent individuals and businesses from complying with foreign sanctions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
Or three letters for “Rapper who famously beefed with Jay-Z”? Try your hand at today’s crossword!
From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2026
Sagan beefed up the L.A.-to-Seattle route to help followers of the U.S. team attend early-round group matches.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 8, 2026
The backroom staff has been beefed up, with Sarah Taylor enlisted to sort the fielding and Troy Cooley adding support to the fast bowlers.
From BBC ● Jun. 3, 2026
This tally of instruments, occasionally beefed up by timpani and trumpets, was the template for the classical orchestra as used by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and their contemporaries.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
And finally, with the SEC opening the door to tokenized equities, they explain what it means for stocks to be traded like crypto—and why AMC is beefing with Robinhood over it.
From Slate ● Sep. 19, 2026
Takaichi has also accelerated a beefing up of Japan's military capabilities as its sheds its strict pacifist stance in place since the war.
From Barron's ● Aug. 15, 2026
Picking up the pace is a worthy goal, he said, but that would mean beefing up the workforce, disrupting traffic and commerce with more street closures, and asking customers to write bigger checks.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2026
Even so, there are plenty of steps ex-smokers can take to boost the benefits from quitting, from changing their diet to beefing up their exercise regimen.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
It’s not that he was beefing with our father or that they didn’t get along—I take that back.
From "All American Boys" by Jason Reynolds
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