beefy, a.
(ˈbiːfɪ)
[f. beef n. + -y1.]
a. Abounding in beef; resembling beef; fleshy; obese; stolid or brawny.
| 1743 H. Walpole Let. 20 Aug. (1903) I. 373, I here every day see men, who are mountains of roast beef... I have an Aunt..who..is as beefy as her neighbours. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xvii. (1856) 129 One day he [the bear] is quite beefy and bearable. 1859 Smiles Self-Help 291 This dunce had a dull energy and a sort of beefy tenacity of purpose. 1860 All Y. Round No. 66. 367 There are no beefy boys at these schools. 1862 Calverley Verses & Tr. 48 The beefy market-place. 1865 Slang Dict., Beefy, unduly thick or fat, commonly said of women's ancles. 1876 M. E. Braddon J. Haggard's Dau. x. 134 Added the farmer in his beefy voice. 1889 Cent. Dict., Beefy..2. Brawny; muscular; hardy. 1890 Kipling Barrack-room Ballads (1892) 52 Beefy face an' grubby 'and—Law! wot do they understand? |
b. Schoolboys' slang. Good, clever, fair, attractive.
| 1903 Wodehouse Prefect's Uncle xv. 213, I doubled across to bring off a beefy c-and-b. 1905 H. A. Vachell Hill i. 15 Comparing these [sc. other rooms] with his own apartment, John said shyly—‘It's not very beefy.’ ‘Beefy? You smell of a private school.’ |