subs. (colloquial).—1. Human flesh; BEEFY = obese, stolid, fleshy like an ox; BEEFINESS = fleshly development. Hence (2) men, strength, ‘hands’: e.g., ‘MORE BEEF,’ a bo’sun’s call to extra exertion; ‘BEEF UP!’ = ‘Now for a long pull and a strong pull’: see PHRASES.
1596. SHAKESPEARE, 1 Henry IV., iii. 3. 199.
| Prin. O, my sweet BEEFE, | |
| I must still be good Angell to thee. |
1859. SMILES, Self-Help, 160. It is the one pull more of the oar that proves the BEEFINESS of the fellow, as Oxford men say. Ibid., 291. This dunce had a dull energy and a sort of BEEFY tenacity of purpose.
1859. G. A. SALA, Gaslight and Daylight, xi. To see him in his huge shirt-sleeves, with his awkward BEEFY hands hanging inanely by his side, and his great foolish mouth open.
1860. All the Year Round, No. 66, 367. There are no BEEFY boys at these schools.
1862. Cork Examiner, 28 March. Chelmsford stood higher in the leg, and showed less BEEF about him.
1863. The Cornhill Magazine, Feb. ‘The Inner Life of a Man-of-War.’ Useful at the heavy hauling of braces, &c.—where plenty of ‘BEEF’ is required.
1876. M. E. BRADDON, J. Haggard’s Daughter, x. 134. Added the farmer in his BEEFY voice.
3. (venery).—The penis: see PRICK. Whence TO BE IN (HAVE or DO A BIT OF) BEEF (of women only) = to have carnal knowledge of men, to copulate: see GREENS and RIDE FOR BEEF, &c.: also TO TAKE IN BEEF, TO GIVE MUTTON.
1603. SHAKESPEARE, Measure for Measure, iii. 2. 59. Pom. Troth, sir, she hath eaten up all her BEEF, and she is herself in the tub.
TO CRY (or GIVE) BEEF (or HOT BEEF), phr. (thieves’).—To give an alarm; to pursue; to set hue and cry. [It has been suggested that BEEF is a rhyming synonym to ‘thief’]. Hence TO MAKE BEEF = to run away; to decamp; BEEF! = ‘Stop thief.’
PHRASES. TO BE IN A MAN’S BEEF = to wound with a sword (GROSE); TO BE DRESSED LIKE CHRISTMAS BEEF = to be decked out in one’s best raiment; BEEF TO THE HEELS, LIKE A MULLINGAR HEIFER = a laudation of a stalwart man, or a fine woman; i.e., one whose superiority is manifest from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot; literally, all beef down to the heels; TO BEEF IT (originally a provincialism, but now common, in the East End of London) = to take a meat meal, more particularly of beef.
1867. BROUGHTON, Cometh up as a Flower, 193. Dolly was not a fine woman, as they say, at all; not BEEF TO THE HEELS, by any means; in a grazier’s eye she would have had no charm whatsoever.
See ALBANY BEEF.
