I. beef 1 S3 /biːf/ BrE AmE noun
[ Date: 1100-1200 ; Language: Old French ; Origin: buef , from Latin bos 'ox' ]
1 . [uncountable] the meat from a cow:
roast beef
We have both dairy and beef cattle on the farm.
2 . [countable] informal a complaint:
OK, so what’s the beef this time?
3 . where’s the beef? American English spoken used when you think someone’s promises sound good, but you want to know what they actually plan to do
⇨ ↑ corned beef
II. beef 2 BrE AmE verb [intransitive]
informal to complain a lot
beef about
They’re always beefing about something.
beef something ↔ up phrasal verb informal
to improve something or make it more interesting, more important etc:
a beefed-up news story
We need to beef the campaign up.