meat

American  

[meet] / mit /

noun

• meats
  plural

1. the flesh of animals as used for food: in particular, mammals, especially livestock and game, and often including poultry and game birds.

2. the edible part of anything, as a fruit or nut.

   Crack the walnuts and remove the meats.

3. the essential point or part of an argument, literary work, etc.; gist; crux.

   The meat of the play is the jealousy between the two brothers.

4. solid food.

   meat and drink.

5. solid or substantial content; pith.

   The article was full of meat, with few wasted words.

6. a favorite occupation, activity, etc..

   Chess is his meat.

7. Chiefly South Midland and Southern U.S. pork, especially bacon.

8. Slang: Vulgar. penis.

9. Archaic. the principal meal.

   to say grace before meat.

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idioms

1. piece of meat,

   1. a person regarded merely as a sex object.

      Years after winning a beauty pageant, she denounced the competition, saying she’d been crowned the judges’ favorite piece of meat.

   2. a person, as a prizefighter or laborer, regarded merely as a strong or useful physical specimen.

      The trainer never apologized for referring to his boxers as pieces of meat—if you made it to the top, he’d start calling you “Kid.”

meat British  

/ miːt /

noun

1. the flesh of mammals used as food, as distinguished from that of birds and fish

2. anything edible, esp flesh with the texture of meat

   crab meat

3. food, as opposed to drink

4. the essence or gist

5. an archaic word for meal 1

6. a source of pleasure

7. informal to lose nothing because one's offer is not accepted

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meat More Idioms  

More idioms and phrases containing meat

• beat the meat
• one's man's meat is another man's poison

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• meatless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• meats
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of meat

First recorded before 900; Middle English mete, met, methe “food, nourishment, sustenance,” Old English mete, mett, “food,” cognate with Old High German maz, Old Norse matr, Gothic mats

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Explanation

Use meat to mean any food that comes from the flesh of an animal. Bacon is meat. Cupcakes are not meat. You can refer to hamburgers, pork chops, and barbecued ribs as meat. It's okay to call chicken and turkey meat too, although formally it's known as poultry, while the flesh of fish is simply called fish. Sometimes the edible part of a nut is also called meat, although it's 100 percent vegetarian. If your grandmother thinks you're too skinny, she may feed you "to put some meat on your bones." In Old English, mete was just "food."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

meat meats

A group of conservative German MEPs are also seeking a specific carve-out for meat names in snacks and sauces in separate legislation, external currently making its way through the European Parliament.

From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2026

“He was throwing deli meat out there,” Rams safety Quentin Lake said this week on the “St. Brown Podcast,” apparently joining the current inclination of using sandwich-related metaphors to describe bad passes.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 5, 2026

"The price of a kilogram of meat ranges between 50,000 and 70,000 pounds. If you could previously afford to buy two kilograms of meat, today you will buy 125 grams."

From Barron's ● Nov. 5, 2026

The thin strips of seasoned and dehydrated meat were his favorite childhood snack, but Hirsch said meat snacks had a masculine aesthetic.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 4, 2026

After a hard day’s travel and nothing to eat but sludge, I thought I definitely deserved to eat Martha’s meat pie.

From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff

The analysis included a broad range of red meats, such as beef, lamb, pork, rabbit, goat, and game.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 18, 2026

People may say they want to eat better, but real-world purchasing decisions often don’t follow stated preferences, especially when plant-based meats are more expensive than the real thing, he said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026

That’s another misunderstanding: We were hawking game, as we like to make a little cash on the side selling rare meats.

From Slate ● Oct. 3, 2026

They have a great all-you-can-eat menu with really great meats and an assortment of sauces and condiments.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 2, 2026

This sure beat the pants off marketing for day-old meats.

From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan

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Related Words

• food
• foodstuff

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