English

Roast beef

Alternative forms

• roastbeef (nonstandard)

Noun

roast beef ‎(countable and uncountable, plural roast beefs)

1. Beef cooked by roasting.
2. A cut of beef that has been roasted.
   • 2000, Phyllis-Terri Gold, Saving Grace: A Spiritual Love Story, page 51,

     I tell the waiter, 'We'll have two roast beefs, one well-done, the other medium rare.'

   • 2008, Red Jordan Arobateau, Leader of the Pack, page 136,

     But the cars & trucks held cartons of roast chickens, slabs of cheeses, loaves of bread, racks of hotdogs, case upon case of soft drinks, cases of bottled sparkling water, pies, cakes, roast beefs & baked hams.

   • 2010, Mariana De Saint Phalle, Mariana's Letters, page 94,

     No delicate little tidbits at these parties; there are buckets of shrimps and oysters, roast beefs and hams and tables of sweets with smiling corporate heads and their lobbyists to greet the guests.

3. A cut of beef intended for roasting.
   • 1999, Michael Pearson, Dreaming of Columbus: A Boyhood in the Bronx, page 152,

     Two or three times a week I had to deliver fifteen- or twenty-pound roast beefs to delis around the Bronx so that they could cook them and slice them up for sandwiches.

   • 2009, Carole M. Counihan, A Tortilla Is Like Life: Food and Culture in the San Luis Valley of Colorado, page 80,

     We had a freezer up until maybe two years ago. We used to pack a lot of roast beefs.

4. A portion of roasted beef.
   • 2006, Allen Rosenshine, Funny Business: Moguls, Mobsters, Megastars, and the Mad, Mad World of the Ad Game, page 117,

     Because there, in the middle of the table, among the roast beefs on rolls, […]

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