beeves

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"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)Reply

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)Reply
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)Reply

RFV discussion

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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)Reply

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


In rap music culture

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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)Reply

It can be countable. "He's got beefs with everyone", for example. WurdSnatcher (talk) 19:01, 26 October 2015 (UTC)Reply
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)Reply
Is it really AAVE? I often see non-AAVE-speaking Americans using it. — Ungoliant (falai) 19:12, 26 October 2015 (UTC)Reply
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)Reply

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

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

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

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)Reply