to have a beef
17
8.2
- idiom
- Slang
:
tener un problema con
- I have a beef with the management about the recent policy changes.
- know you have a beef
- guy who has a beef
- say that I have a beef
You have a beef with Tricia, who doesn't have a beef?
- You have a beef with Tricia, who doesn't have a beef?
- Sure, the Democratic establishment may have a beef with him now because he's been rubbing them the wrong way.
- With Schaub or like some of his material and stuff has been about I know he has a beef with Rogan.
- So, you know, it's, it's it's sticky to like, I've got no, I don't really have a beef with foods that are obviously unhealthy, but super tasty, right?
Examples
-
I don't have a beef.
-
What if I have a beef with you?
-
Did Charlie have a beef with anybody around town?
-
Do you have a beef with us, honey?
-
You have a beef with anybody I should know about?
-
There's no reason for him to have a beef with me.
-
They have a beef with me, they should come to me.
-
I had a beef with Major Max's boys.
-
But I still believe you have a beef with TNG/Roddenberry.
Blog text (8) -
Yeah, he has a beef with a rival faction of volunteer crime fighters.
Blog text (10)
Antonyms
How Angry
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to have a complaint' is directly derivable from combining 'have' (to possess/experience) with 'beef' when the learner knows 'beef' in its colloquial sense of a gripe or complaint. This follows a simple have + noun compositional pattern, so it is transparently understandable to learners who know the slang sense (though learners who only know 'beef' as the meat sense would not derive it).
Etymology
Have a beef comes from old American street slang where beef meant a fight or a complaint, so people would say they 'had beef' when they had a problem with someone. That's why have a beef now means 'to complain' or 'to have a grievance'.