Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English - beef

~1 n 1 the meat from a cow  (roast beef) 2 informal a complaint  (OK, so what's the beef this time?) 3 where's the beef? spoken especially AmE used when you think someone's words and promises sound good, but you want to know what they actually plan to do  (- see also beef tea, corned beef) ~2 v informal to complain a lot + abou  (They're always beefing about something or other.) beef sth up ~ phr v informal to improve something or make it more interesting, more important etc  (a beefed up news story | We need to beef the campaign up a bit.)