beef

Etymology
From, , , borrowed from , , (modern ); from , from , ultimately from. .

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. 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 though.

Noun

 * 1)   The meat from a cow, bull, or other bovine.
 * 2)  The edible portions of a cow (including those which are not meat).
 * 3)  Muscle or musculature; size, strength or potency.
 * 4)  Essence, content; the important part of a document or project.
 * 5)  Bovine animals.
 * 6)  A bovine (cow or bull) being raised for its meat.
 * 7) * 1903 March, Henry Mason Baum, Frederick Bennett Wright, George Frederick Wright, Records of the Past, volume II, part III, page 87, translating the laws of Hammurabi:
 * 263. If he [one to whom a beef or sheep is loaned] ruins the beef or sheep that was loaned him, he is to return to the owner a beef for a beef and a sheep for a sheep.
 * 1) * 1920–1930, Photo in the North Dakota State Museum:
 * Cutting out a Beef for branding
 * 1)  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)
 * 2)  Fibrous calcite or limestone, especially when occurring in a jagged layer between shales in Dorset.
 * 1)  Bovine animals.
 * 2)  A bovine (cow or bull) being raised for its meat.
 * 3) * 1903 March, Henry Mason Baum, Frederick Bennett Wright, George Frederick Wright, Records of the Past, volume II, part III, page 87, translating the laws of Hammurabi:
 * 263. If he [one to whom a beef or sheep is loaned] ruins the beef or sheep that was loaned him, he is to return to the owner a beef for a beef and a sheep for a sheep.
 * 1) * 1920–1930, Photo in the North Dakota State Museum:
 * Cutting out a Beef for branding
 * 1)  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)
 * 2)  Fibrous calcite or limestone, especially when occurring in a jagged layer between shales in Dorset.
 * 263. If he [one to whom a beef or sheep is loaned] ruins the beef or sheep that was loaned him, he is to return to the owner a beef for a beef and a sheep for a sheep.
 * 1) * 1920–1930, Photo in the North Dakota State Museum:
 * Cutting out a Beef for branding
 * 1)  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)
 * 2)  Fibrous calcite or limestone, especially when occurring in a jagged layer between shales in Dorset.
 * 1)  Fibrous calcite or limestone, especially when occurring in a jagged layer between shales in Dorset.
 * 1)  Fibrous calcite or limestone, especially when occurring in a jagged layer between shales in Dorset.
 * 1)  Fibrous calcite or limestone, especially when occurring in a jagged layer between shales in Dorset.
 * 1)  Fibrous calcite or limestone, especially when occurring in a jagged layer between shales in Dorset.
 * 1)  Fibrous calcite or limestone, especially when occurring in a jagged layer between shales in Dorset.

Usage notes
A calf is a bovine, so, technically, the flesh of a calf, used for food, is beef. However, it is not common to use this term for the flesh of a calf; instead, it is referred to with the more specific term.

Translations

 * Afrikaans:
 * Ahom: 𑜃𑜢𑜤𑜰𑜫 𑜑𑜥
 * Albanian: mish lope
 * Apache:
 * Western Apache: magashi bitsiʼ
 * Arabic: لَحْم بَقَر
 * Armenian:
 * Basque:
 * Belarusian:
 * Bourbonnais-Berrichon: bœû
 * Breton:
 * Bulgarian: гове́ждо
 * Burmese:
 * Catalan:
 * Cherokee: ᏩᎦ ᎭᏫᏯ
 * Chinese:
 * Cantonese: 牛肉
 * Hokkien:
 * Mandarin:
 * Cornish: kig bewin, kig bowin
 * Corsican:, ,
 * Czech:
 * Danish:
 * Dutch:, ,
 * Esperanto: bovaĵo
 * Estonian: veiseliha
 * Faroese: neytakjøt
 * Finnish: ,
 * French:
 * Galician:
 * Georgian: ძროხის
 * German: ,
 * Greek:
 * Greenlandic: nersussuup neqaa
 * Gujarati: ગોમાંસ
 * Hebrew: (בְּשַׂר) בָּקָר
 * Hindi: गोमांस,
 * Hungarian:
 * Icelandic:
 * Ido:
 * Indonesian:
 * Irish: mairteoil
 * Isan:
 * Italian:, carne bovina
 * Japanese: ,
 * Kazakh: сиыр еті
 * Khakas: інек иді
 * Khmer: សាច់គោ
 * Korean:, , -우(牛),  우육(牛肉)
 * Kyrgyz: уй эти
 * Lao:, ເນຶ້ອງົວ
 * Latin: būbula
 * Latvian: liellopa gaļa, vērša gaļa
 * Lithuanian: jautiena
 * Luxembourgish: Rëndfleesch
 * Macedonian: говедско, телешко, јунешко
 * Malay: ,
 * Maltese: ċanga
 * Manx: feill vart
 * Maori: mīti kau, pīwhi
 * Marathi: गोमांस
 * Mongolian:
 * Navajo: béégashii bitsįʼ
 * Nepali: बीउ
 * Norman: viande dé vaque
 * Northern Sami: vuovssábiergu, šibitbiergu, oamebiergu
 * Norwegian:
 * Bokmål: storfekjøtt, oksekjøtt
 * Nynorsk: storfekjøt, storfekjøtt, oksekjøt, oksekjøtt
 * Occitan:
 * Persian:
 * Plautdietsch: Rintfleesch
 * Polish:
 * Portuguese: carne de vaca, carne bovina ,
 * Quechua: waka aycha
 * Romanian:
 * Romansch: charn-bov
 * Russian: ,
 * Samoan: povi, fāsipovi
 * Sanskrit:
 * Scottish Gaelic: mairtfheòil
 * Serbo-Croatian:
 * Cyrillic: говедина, телетина, јунетина
 * Roman:, ,
 * Shor: нек эди
 * Sindhi: ٻوڙا
 * Sinhalese: හරක් මස්
 * Slovak: hovädzie
 * Slovene: ,
 * Sorbian:
 * Lower Sorbian: gowjeze měso, gowjezyna
 * Upper Sorbian: howjaze mjaso
 * Southern Altai: бозуныҥ эди
 * Spanish: carne de res, carne de vaca
 * Swahili: nyama ya ng'ombe
 * Swedish:
 * Tagalog: karneng baka
 * Telugu:, , ,
 * Thai: ,
 * Tibetan:
 * Turkish: ,
 * Ukrainian:
 * Urdu: گوشت
 * Uyghur: كالا گۆشى
 * Vietnamese: thịt bò (䏦𤙭)
 * Volapük: bubamit
 * Walloon:
 * Welsh: ,
 * West Frisian: kowefleis
 * Yiddish: רינדפֿלייש
 * Zhuang: laeblaz


 * Chinese:
 * Mandarin:
 * German:, heftige Verärgerung, , ,

Verb

 * 1)  To complain.
 * 2)  To add weight or strength to.
 * 3)  To fart; break wind.
 * 4)  To cry.
 * 5)  To fail or mess up.
 * 6)  To feud or hold a grudge against.
 * 7)  To sing or speak loudly; to cry out.
 * 1)  To cry.
 * 2)  To fail or mess up.
 * 3)  To feud or hold a grudge against.
 * 4)  To sing or speak loudly; to cry out.
 * 1)  To feud or hold a grudge against.
 * 2)  To sing or speak loudly; to cry out.
 * 1)  To sing or speak loudly; to cry out.
 * 1)  To sing or speak loudly; to cry out.

Adjective

 * 1) Being a bovine animal that is being raised for its meat.
 * 2) Producing or known for raising lots of beef.
 * 3) Consisting of or containing beef as an ingredient.
 * 4)  ; powerful; robust.
 * 1) Consisting of or containing beef as an ingredient.
 * 2)  ; powerful; robust.
 * 1)  ; powerful; robust.
 * 1)  ; powerful; robust.

Translations

 * Bulgarian:
 * Russian: