beef
Americannoun
-
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)
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:
A range of products like beef, coffee and certain aircraft parts will be exempted, as will some goods that the United States does not produce.
From Barron's ● Jul. 21, 2026
Ranchers in the U.S., which exported $9.3 billion in beef and beef products in 2025, say those staffing cuts could threaten their bottom lines.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 18, 2026
When my neck shrine was finally finished, it was pronounced "exquisite" and left to dry, while salt beef and cream cheese beigels arrived from nearby Brick Lane.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
KOW Wagyu beef cheeks require minimal effort for a massive flavor payoff.
From Salon ● Jul. 12, 2026
I watch JP take the bowl of noodles from the microwave and put the beef jerky pieces in it.
From "The Manifestor Prophecy" by Angie Thomas
In the history of musical beefs, some cuts reign supreme.
From Salon ● May 16, 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
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
At that, 50,000 people applauded, fell upon 1.000 barbecued beeves, 130,000 foot-long sandwiches, downed gallons of lemonade.
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
To what extent will the No 10 operation be beefed up, and how much clout will No 10 North, Burnham's office in Manchester, have?
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
Over the past year, the carrier has beefed up its schedule there and is poised to win back gates it previously lost.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 17, 2026
He himself lives in London, where Cohere recently beefed up its offices.
From Barron's ● Jun. 18, 2026
James Monroe and Andrew Jackson beefed up and refurbished the White House.
From Slate ● May 18, 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
DeepSeek is beefing up teams focused on developing agentic AI tools-software capable of automating complex work-that could open up future revenue streams, some of the people said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 16, 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
“I will continue to do the work on beefing up the system, so you can call 911 and have the right team respond,” she told an audience last month.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2026
Some schools are starting their own in-house lending programs and others are beefing up their lists of private lenders with which they have special deals.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 31, 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.