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beef up

 - 8 dictionary results
Meat & Poultry
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beef-up

  [beef-uhp]
Use beef up in a Sentence
–noun
an act or instance of strengthening or reinforcing.
Origin:
n. use of v. phrase beef up
Meat & Poultry
Cooking Gifts at Williams-Sonoma. Order by 10AM PST - December 21.
www.williams-sonoma.com
fresh&easy™ Meat
Ingredients you can pronounce. Prices that make you smile.
freshandeasy.com/Meat

beef

  [beef] noun, plural beeves  [beevz] for 2; beefs for 4, verb
–noun
1. the flesh of a cow, steer, or bull raised and killed for its meat.
2. an adult cow, steer, or bull raised for its meat.
3. Informal.
a. brawn; muscular strength.
b. strength; power.
c. weight, as of a person.
d. human flesh.
4. Slang.
a. a complaint.
b. an argument or dispute.
–verb (used without object)
5. Slang. to complain; grumble.
—Verb phrase
6. beef up,
a. to add strength, numbers, force, etc., to; strengthen: During the riots, the nighttime patrol force was beefed up with volunteers.
b. to increase or add to: to beef up our fringe benefits.
Origin:
1250–1300; 1885–90 for def. 5; ME < AF beof, OF boef < L bov- (s. of bōs) ox, cow; akin to cow 1

Related forms:
beefless, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To beef up
beef   (bēf)   
n.   pl. beeves (bēvz) or beef

    1. A full-grown steer, bull, ox, or cow, especially one intended for use as meat.

    2. The flesh of a slaughtered full-grown steer, bull, ox, or cow.

  2. Informal Human muscle; brawn.

  3. pl. beefs Slang A complaint.

intr.v.   beefed, beef·ing, beefs Slang
To complain.
Phrasal Verb(s):
beef up Informal To make or become greater or stronger: beef up the defense budget.

[Middle English, from Old French buef, from Latin bōs, bov-; see gwou- in Indo-European roots.]
Word History: That beef comes from cows is known to most, but the close relationship between the words beef and cow is hardly household knowledge. Cow comes via Middle English from Old English cū, which is descended from the Indo-European root *gwou-, also meaning "cow." This root has descendants in most of the branches of the Indo-European language family. Among those descendants is the Latin word bōs, "cow," whose stem form, bov-, eventually became the Old French word buef, also meaning "cow." The French nobles who ruled England after the Norman Conquest of course used French words to refer to the meats they were served, so the animal called cū by the Anglo-Saxon peasants was called buef by the French nobles when it was brought to them cooked at dinner. Thus arose the distinction between the words for animals and their meat that is also found in the English word-pairs swine/pork, sheep/mutton, and deer/venison. What is interesting about cow/beef is that we are in fact dealing with one and the same word, etymologically speaking.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary
beef

  1. n.
    a complaint; a quarrel. : I gotta beef against you.
  2. n.
    a criminal charge or complaint. : The beef is that you appear to have left the bank Monday with about seventy-five grand that isn't yours. That's the beef!
  3. n.
    a large and muscular male. : Let's get one of those beefs in here to help.
  4. in.
    to complain. : What's he beefing about now?
  5. in.
    to break wind; to release intestinal gas audibly. (Usually objectionable.) : Willy warned everybody that he was going to beef.
  6. n.
    an act of breaking wind. (Usually objectionable.) : All right! Who's beef was that?
  7. in.
    to crack up and get injured as in a skateboard accident. : Chuck beefed and wrecked his elbow.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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beef (sth) up

  1. tv.
    to add strength or substance to something. : They beefed up the offer with another thousand dollars.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Word Origin & History

beef 
c.1300, from O.Fr. boef, from L. bos (gen. bovis, acc. bovem) "ox, cow." Original plural was beeves. The verb meaning "to complain" is slang first recorded 1888. Beefy "brawny" is from 1743. Beefeater "warder of the Tower of London" (1671) is a contemptuous reference to well-fed servants of the royal household; the notion is of "eating another's beef" (cf. O.E. hlaf-æta "servant," lit. "loaf-eater"). To beef up "add strength" is from 1890.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Medical Dictionary

Main Entry: beef
Pronunciation: 'bEf
Function: noun
Inflected Form: plural beefs /'bEfs/ or beeves /'bEvz/
: the flesh of an adult domestic bovine (as a steer or cow) when killed for food
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Idioms & Phrases

beef up

Strengthen, reinforce, as in Mary wants us to beef up her part in the play. This phrase relies on an older slang sense of beef as "muscles" or "power." [Colloquial; late 1800s]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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