poor man's steak
- noun
- /pʊr mænz steɪk/
:
carne molida
- She made poor man's steak for dinner using seasoned ground beef and gravy.
Examples
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The recipe suggests using mushrooms to add flavor to poor man's steak.
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The restaurant offers a great poor man's steak special.
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During tough times, families often relied on poor man's steak as a hearty meal.
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I made a delicious poor man's steak for dinner.
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During tough times, families often relied on poor man's steak as a hearty meal.
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She made poor man's steak for dinner using seasoned ground beef and gravy.
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The recipe suggests using mushrooms to add flavor to poor man's steak.
Synonyms
1
2.2
A flat piece of ground beef that is cooked and served as a main dish
A cooked flat piece of ground beef served without a bun
Antonyms
How Expensive
Surface Forms
Morphology
The construction 'poor man's X' is a productive possessive metaphor meaning 'an inexpensive or inferior substitute for X', so a B1 learner who knows 'poor', 'man', and 'steak' can usually infer this refers to a cheaper alternative to steak rather than a literal steak owned by a poor man. However, the figurative possessive shift and cultural usage require a small inferential step beyond literal composition, so the relation is not fully transparent.
Etymology
Poor man's steak comes from home cooks who could not afford a real steak and so made a cheaper version with ground beef or cheaper cuts. The picture of a 'poor man' buying a cheaper meat explains why the phrase now means 'an inexpensive alternative to steak'.