adjective
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like beef
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informal muscular; brawny
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informal fleshy; obese
Other Word Forms
- beefily adverb
- beefiness noun
Etymology
Origin of beefy
Explanation
Someone who's beefy has a big, dense, muscular body. Your beefy, loud-voiced gym teacher might turn out to be a sweet and thoughtful person. The adjective beefy is a bit derogatory — in other words, it's not exactly used as a compliment. If you describe a person as beefy, you imply that not only is he large, strong, and brawny, he might also be somewhat dense. You could also use the word to mean "tasting like beef," although that's much less common. The word dates from 1743, from the sense of "human muscle."
Vocabulary lists containing beefy
The Season of Styx Malone
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Hello, Universe
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The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise
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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.
At the start of this year, beefy pickups and SUVs were back in favor on Wall Street.
From Barron's • Mar. 20, 2026
The first person we visited in Slovyansk was Oleh Tkachenko, a beefy middle-aged pastor who has built up a remarkable relief operation.
From BBC • Feb. 24, 2026
Classic moves lean umami-heavy: think beefy gravy for a poutine and disco fries, chili for the diner classic.
From Salon • Sep. 16, 2025
There’s a whole discourse that women only want to marry tall, beefy, high-testosterone, aggro men, but that discourse is largely propagated by male influencers and people trying to sell protein powder.
From Slate • Jun. 15, 2025
It was the bleak face of middle age, waiting intent and stoical between the beefy faces of the soldiers.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
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.
