beeves

English

Beeves in Tanzania.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -iːvz

Noun

beeves

1. (archaic or humorous) plural of beef: cows, bulls, or steers.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Numbers 31:28:

     And levy a tribute unto the LORD of the men of war which went out to battle: one soul of five hundred, both of the persons, and of the beeves, and of the asses, and of the sheep:

   • 1638, Sir Thomas Herbert, Some yeares travels into divers parts of Asia and Afrique:

     ...bells and babies are valuable alſo here, and for which, (or one bead of cornelion) you ſhall have in exchange, Sheep (big tail'd like thoſe in Syria and Perſia) Beeves and Buffaloes, big-bond, fat, and Camel-backt...

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book XI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     One way a Band select from forage drives
     A herd of Beeves, faire Oxen and faire Kine
     From a fat Meddow ground

   • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput):

     …to deliver in every morning six beeves, forty sheep, and other victuals for my sustenance.

   • 2004, Ginger Hanson, Ransom's Bride, page 106:

     "I heard Texas was horses and beeves."

   • 2012, Alan Massie, In everything we say, there is an echo of 1066:

     "In Walter Scott’s novel Ivanhoe, a Saxon peasant explains that the oxen, calves, swine and sheep are good Saxons tended by Saxons when alive, but turn into Norman-French when they are ready to be eaten as beef (or beeves), veal, pork and mutton."

   • (Can we date this quote?), Surrey folk rhyme:

     Sutton for mutton, Carshalton for beeves,
     Epsom for whores and Ewel for thieves.

Synonyms

• beefs