Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Beef

Beef (bēf), n. [OE. boef, befe, beef, OF. boef, buef, F. bœef, fr. L. bos, bovis, ox; akin to Gr. βοῦς, Skr. gō cow, and E. cow. See 2d Cow.] 1. An animal of the genus Bos, especially the common species, B. taurus, including the bull, cow, and ox, in their full grown state; esp., an ox or cow fattened for food. [In this, which is the original sense, the word has a plural, beeves (bēvz).]

A herd of beeves, fair oxen and fair kine. Milton.

2. The flesh of an ox, or cow, or of any adult bovine animal, when slaughtered for food. [In this sense, the word has no plural.] "Great meals of beef." Shak.

3. Applied colloquially to human flesh.

Beef (bēf), a. Of, pertaining to, or resembling, beef.

Beef tea, essence of beef, or strong beef broth.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.