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• beef-up
  beef-up

  noun

  an act or instance of strengthening or reinforcing.
• beef up
  beef up

  Strengthen, reinforce, as in Mary wants us to beef up her part in the play. This phrase relies on an older slang sense of beef as “muscles” or “power.” [Colloquial; late 1800s]

beef-up

American  

[beef-uhp] / ˈbifˌʌp /

noun

1. an act or instance of strengthening or reinforcing.

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beef up Idioms  

1. Strengthen, reinforce, as in Mary wants us to beef up her part in the play. This phrase relies on an older slang sense of beef as “muscles” or “power.” [Colloquial; late 1800s]

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Etymology

Origin of beef-up

Noun use of verb phrase beef up

Example Sentences

The menu helped beef up repeat visits at Burger King in January even after the promotion ended, Kobza said.

From Los Angeles Times • May 22, 2026

That’s roughly $2 billion shy of what Amazon paid to acquire Whole Foods in 2017 and more than what it paid to beef up its streaming service with MGM in 2021.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 15, 2026

A longtime security hawk, she has big plans to beef up Japan’s armed forces with new weapons and capabilities.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 28, 2026

A full-time appointment, along with a substantive fast-bowling coach, would beef up McCullum's backroom.

From BBC • Mar. 20, 2026

“If you’re worried, we can always ask the police to beef up the patrol around my house. And we have an alarm system since my dad is totally anxious about how quiet it is here.”

From "Love, Hate & Other Filters" by Samira Ahmed