“beeves” is a form of
beef
UK /biːf/ · US /bif/ noun, verb, adjective
Forms beefs beeves beefing beefed
- noun (uncountable) The meat from cattle or other bovines; especially, that from adults. “I love eating beef.”
- noun (in the meat industry, on product packaging) The edible portions of a cow (including those which are not meat). “lean finely textured beef”
- noun (by extension, slang, uncountable) Muscle or musculature; size, strength or potency. “Put some beef into it! We've got to get the car over the bump.”
- noun (figurative, slang, uncountable) Essence, content; the important part of a document or project. “The beef of his paper was a long rant about government.”
- noun (uncountable) Bovine animals.
- noun (now chiefly Canada, US, countable, now uncommon, plural beeves) A bovine (cow or bull) being raised for its meat. “Do you want to raise beeves?”
- noun (slang, uncountable or countable, plural beefs) A grudge; dislike (of something or someone); lack of faith or trust (in something or someone); a reason for a dislike or grudge. (often + with) “He's got beef over what you said.”
- noun (prison slang) A criminal charge.
- verb (intransitive, slang) To complain.
- verb (transitive, slang) To add weight or strength to.
- verb (intransitive, slang) To fart; break wind. “Ugh, who just beefed in here?”
- verb (intransitive, chiefly Yorkshire) To cry. “David was beefing last night after Ruth told him off.”
- verb (transitive, slang) To fail or mess up. “I beefed my presentation hard yesterday.”
- verb (chiefly African-American Vernacular, MLE, MTE, intransitive, slang) To feud or hold a grudge against. “Those two are beefing right now — best you stay out of it.”
- verb (intransitive, slang, Australia) To sing or speak loudly; to cry out.
- adjective Being a bovine animal that is being raised for its meat. “We bought three beef calves this morning.”
- adjective Producing or known for raising lots of beef. “beef farms”
- adjective Consisting of or containing beef as an ingredient. “beef stew”
- adjective (slang) Beefy; powerful; robust. “Wow, your audio setup is beef!”
Synonyms
cowflesh oxflesh meat beef up beef cattle boeuf gripe kick bitch squawk grouse crab bellyache holler
Etymology
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 Sugar for his Coffee.”—Fables in Slang (1900) by George Ade, page 80.
As to the possible origin of this American usage, it has been suggested that it can be traced back to a British expression for “alarm”, first recorded in 1725: "BEEF 'to alarm, as To cry beef upon us; they have discover'd us, and are in Pursuit of us". The term "beef" in this context would be a Cockney rhyming slang of thief. However, the continuous use of a similar expression, including its assumed semantic shift to 'complaint' in the United States from the 1880s onwards, needs further clarification.
Webster’s 1913
- noun An animal of the genus Bos, especially the common species, B. taurus, including the bull, cow, and ox, in their full grown state; esp., an ox or cow fattened for food.
- noun The flesh of an ox, or cow, or of any adult bovine animal, when slaughtered for food.
- adjective Of, pertaining to, or resembling, beef. Beef tea, essence of beef, or strong beef broth.
Etymology [OE. boef, befe, beef, OF. boef, buef, F. b, fr. L. bos, bovis, ox; akin to Gr. , Skr. g cow, and E. cow. See 2d Cow.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “beef”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details