beef
Americannoun
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beeves,
plural
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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.
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Informal.
-
brawn; muscular strength.
-
strength; power.
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weight, as of a person.
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human flesh.
-
-
Slang.
-
a complaint.
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an argument or dispute.
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verb (used without object)
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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
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informal human flesh, esp when muscular
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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
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beefsimple
-
beefssimple
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have beefedperfect
-
has beefedperfect
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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:
But in the latter half of the 20th century, new research about the dangers of cholesterol and fat in beef began to shift consumer tides toward leaner proteins.
From Slate ● Aug. 24, 2026
He said exporters had committed to selling the beef at 25% below current market prices.
From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026
To keep up with the portions of protein her customers order, Singletary, who opened Urban Comfort Foods in October, has switched to a different distributor for beef and lamb.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 22, 2026
To distinguish Japanese beef from Wagyu produced elsewhere, the Japan Meat Grading Association created the A5 label, which is given only to the highest-quality Japanese cuts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
“Ever eat a pork chop? A roast beef? A liver?”
From "Fourth Grade Rats" by Jerry Spinelli
While the rapper born Jermaine Lamarr Cole and raised in Fayetteville, N.C., has participated in his share of public beefs, he has never acted like he had all the answers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 10, 2026
"Hiss" is a feat for the independent rapper — reminiscent of some of rap's most complex beefs from the '90s and '00s.
From Salon ● Dec. 28, 2024
You may not typically think of WordPress, the blogging platform turned ubiquitous content management system, as a workplace rife with corporate drama, or as an instigator of petty public beefs.
From Slate ● Oct. 11, 2024
Drake had other beefs with other performers, like Meek Mill in 2015, and most infamously Pusha T in 2018, where the latter rapper dropped “The Story of Adidon,” revealing Drake is a father.
From Seattle Times ● May 7, 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
Willis' all-action game would have beefed up England's anaemic Six Nations.
From BBC ● Jun. 8, 2026
Some local officials have pushed back, though many say they have beefed up rules for p-cards.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026
James Monroe and Andrew Jackson beefed up and refurbished the White House.
From Slate ● May 18, 2026
The rest of the city also saw a beefed up police presence, with offices, businesses and schools braced for shutdown orders.
From Barron's ● Apr. 21, 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
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
Ford also is beefing up its use of connected data to steer owners to its dealers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 6, 2026
His remarks come amid Germany beefing up its military capacity in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
From Barron's ● May 16, 2026
Bass wants to address the problem by beefing up social services within the program.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 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
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
