side of beef
3
4.2
- noun
- Specialized
:
costillar
- The entire room is filled floor to ceiling with cases of whiskey, wine, crates of lobster, shrimp, and stacks of table linen and sides of beef.
- a whole side of beef
Examples
-
And, you know, you only get one hanger steak per side of beef, so you won't often see these, and quite often the butchers keep them for themselves.
-
Hilda went to the Arthurs just after the meat man carried in two sides of beef.
Fiction book (1990) -
I still have that side of beef you gave me.
-
Where you gonna hide a side of beef?
-
When it came to de-boning a side of beef, there was nobody that could touch me.
Fiction book (1993) -
"By the way, Frank is barbecuing practically a whole side of beef this weekend," Mom told me.
Fiction book (2000) -
She stands at the front door with a side of beef so big she can barely carry it.
Fiction book (1999) -
Porters wheel huge loads of fruits, vegetables, and sides of beef.
Fiction book (1995) -
Frida sniffs the side of beef hungrily.
Fiction book (1999) -
The butcher displayed a fresh side of beef ready for customers in the shop.
Synonyms
267
7.2
One lengthwise half of an animal prepared for meat
A large half of an animal prepared and sold for eating
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is fully compositional and literal: 'side' denotes a part or half, 'of' links the noun, and 'beef' denotes meat from cattle. A B1 learner who knows these constituents can infer it refers to a portion (one half) of a beef carcass prepared for sale, and there is no idiomatic or metaphorical shift.
Etymology
Side of beef comes from the butcher's shop: a butcher hangs a large side of beef, one half of a cow after it is cut for meat, on a hook to store and sell. So, it means 'one half of a cow prepared for meat'.