Talk:beef

beeves

"beeves" is archaic. I forget where I've seen it, but I'm pretty sure it's Modern English. If not, it's certainly Middle English. It's in the same family as leaves, wives, knives, lives etc. It might still be around but that we hardly ever use "beef" in the sense of "male cow" as opposed to the mass noun sense of "meat". As it is, the irregular form doesn't see enough use to be retained. If it were, we might well see "beeves" as the plural of "male cow" and "beefs" as the plural of "complaint" (which is to be expected in any case -- see Pinker's Words and Rules for more). -dmh 05:15, 17 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Is this UK or obsolete? --Connel MacKenzie 19:11, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

Probably both, or archaic. Not in current use except as a poetic term. Dialect has beese as a plural, but it is probably just a pronunciation of beasts. Dbfirs 09:58, 24 November 2008 (UTC)

Isn't "cattle" the common plural of "beef"?

No more than "flock" is the plural of "bird". They are different words. Equinox ◑ 21:27, 23 March 2014 (UTC)

RFV discussion

The following information has failed Wiktionary's verification process.

Failure to be verified means that insufficient eligible citations of this usage have been found, and the entry therefore does not meet Wiktionary inclusion criteria at the present time. We have archived here the disputed information, the verification discussion, and any documentation gathered so far, pending further evidence.
Do not re-add this information to the article without also submitting proof that it meets Wiktionary's criteria for inclusion.

---

Rfv-sense: "(countable) Would be "a side of beef". A chunk, cut or piece not being the whole piece, compare ham."

I'm not sure what was intended, but what is written seems to define "beef" as meaning "a (countable) piece, chunk or side of (uncountable) beef. I am unfamiliar with this usage and don't find it in MWOnline, which usually has the largest number of senses and subsenses among on-line dictionaries. MW does have a countable sense, "a dressed carcass of a beef animal", which I had also not heard before. This would presumably be two "sides" of beef, contrary to "a side" of beef as our challenged sense states. DCDuring TALK 14:50, 3 November 2010 (UTC)

RFV failed. Equinox ◑ 16:06, 24 January 2011 (UTC)

In rap music culture

The "complaint or disagreement" sense is uncountable in rap music culture. A rapper has "beef" with somebody, not "a beef". Equinox ◑ 13:40, 14 August 2012 (UTC)

It can be countable. "He's got beefs with everyone", for example. WurdSnatcher (talk) 19:01, 26 October 2015 (UTC)

Oh wow, didn't notice your comment was three years old. anyway I didn't change countability, it was marked as both and I left it that way. I did move stuff into subsenses today and tweaked the AAVE sense a bit (plus added another). WurdSnatcher (talk) 19:09, 26 October 2015 (UTC)

Is it really AAVE? I often see non-AAVE-speaking Americans using it. — Ungoliant ^(falai) 19:12, 26 October 2015 (UTC)

It was originally, but has crossed over to some degree. It's still a lot more common in AAVE though I think. WurdSnatcher (talk) 19:26, 26 October 2015 (UTC)

(plural beeves or beef) : animal used for beef:

(plural beeves or beef) animal used for beef
Microsoft® Encarta® 2009

--Backinstadiums (talk) 16:55, 14 March 2020 (UTC)

The word is also used (plural beeves, US also beefs or beef) in the sense ‘ox(en), especially when fattened, or their carcasses’. --Backinstadiums (talk) 16:59, 19 July 2021 (UTC)