roast beef
26
1.0
- noun
- /roʊst biːf/
:
rosbif
- His plate was heaped high with roast beef and mashed potatoes.
- cooking roast beef
So it's not a steak or a pork chop or roast beef at the center of the plate with some vegetables and starch on the side.
- So it's not a steak or a pork chop or roast beef at the center of the plate with some vegetables and starch on the side.
- When you think about England, you think about roast beef, the great cliffs of Dover, you know, guys with tall furry hats guarding the queen.
- I could taste the fucking roast beef through the walls of my cells in my cheeks.
- Dead Turkey, dead salmon, dead pig, dead cow with, with roast beef, dead vegetables.
- It's like a blanket, some water, and a pound of roast beef.
- So it's strange, it's so thinly sliced, like maybe thinly sliced roast beef, but it doesn't taste like roast beef.
Examples
-
The kitchen smelled of roast beef and stewed apples.
Fiction book (1991) -
Give me a half-pound of roast beef.
-
You have roast beef on Christmas.
-
The roast beef of old England!
-
I'm sorry too that you had to eat your roast beef alone.
Fiction book (1994) -
The table was set for dinner, and the smell of roast beef permeated the air.
Fiction book (1990) -
It's a crummy place, but the roast beef is good.
Fiction book (2002) -
A nice roast beef sandwich with horseradish on it.
-
We both loaded our plates with roast beef, chicken, mashed potatoes, and veggies.
Fiction book (1992) -
We had delicious roast beef with Yorkshire pudding for dinner last night.
Synonyms
3
3.6
A cut of beef from the back of a cow used for roasting or slow cooking
1
2.8
A large cut of meat with several ribs cooked whole
1
1.3
A large piece of beef cooked in an oven and served as a main dish
1
5.2
A large cut of beef with several ribs, roasted standing up
How Filling
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'beef that has been cooked by roasting' is directly and compositionally derived from 'roast' (meat prepared using oven or open-fire heat) + 'beef' (meat from cattle). This adjective–noun construction is a common, cross-linguistic pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
Roast beef comes from a simple cooking picture: a large piece of beef put by the fire to roast until brown and then cut into slices to serve. So the name means 'beef cooked by roasting' and is used for that 'main dish'.