Beefed

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Made stronger or more robust by adding extra strength or support ; became angry or agitated about something
2. Increased in power or size to improve effectiveness ; showed anger or irritation in reaction to an event
3. Enhanced strength or capability through reinforcement ; expressed anger or was visibly upset

Etymology: Beef began as a plain word for an ox, borrowed into Middle English from Anglo-Norman and Old French and ultimately traced back to Latin "bovem". Its slang sense of a grievance is a much later American development. The earliest recorded use as a verb meaning "to complain" dates to 1888, in the New York World, where a character is said to "beef an' kick like a steer." A noun use meaning a complaint or grievance followed in 1899, in George Ade's "Fables in Slang." Where the American sense came from is unsettled. One suggestion links it to a British expression from 1725, "to cry beef," meaning to raise an alarm, with "beef" perhaps a cockney rhyming slang for "thief." The link is not firmly established, and the shift from alarm to complaint in the United States from the 1880s onwards is still not fully explained. The sense of increasing power or strength to improve effectiveness, as in "beefed up," is a further extension of the same slang, where the ox's bulk suggests added muscle.

Synonyms: increased, augmented

Antonyms: decreased