beef

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   The meat from cattle, such as cows or bulls.

   We had roast beef for dinner on Sunday.

2. 2
   noun

   A complaint or grudge against someone.

   He still has a beef with his old boss.

3. 3
   verb

   To complain.

   Stop beefing about the food and just eat it.

PIE word *gʷṓws From Middle English beef, bef, beof, borrowed from Anglo-Norman beof, Old French buef, boef (“ox”) (modern French bœuf); from Latin bovem (“ox”), from Proto-Italic *gʷōs, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws. Doublet of cow. Beef in the sense of “a grudge, argument” was originally an American slang expression: * attested as a verb “to complain” in 1888: “He'll beef an' kick like a steer an' let on he won't never wear 'em.”— New York World, 13 May; * attested as a noun “complaint, protest, grievance, sim.” in 1899: “He made a Horrible Beef because he couldn't get Loaf Sug…

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