A steak or thick slice of beef, cut from the hind-quarters of the animal, suitable for grilling or frying.
1711. [see b.]
1715. Spect., No. 639 (1734), IX. 13. He tossed his Hat into the Frying-pan, and made a Beef-stake of it.
1783. Johnson, in Boswell, III. 449. Let you and I, Sir, go together and eat a Beef-steak in Grub-Street.
1849. Dickens, Dav. Copp., xviii. 162. I am taken home … have beef-steaks put to my eyes.
b. attrib., as in beef-steak pie, pudding; Beef-steak Club, a celebrated society founded by Lord Peterborough; the members wear a gridiron upon their buttons, and meet now in the Lyceum Theatre.
Hence Beefsteaker.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 9, ¶ 8. The Beef-steak and October Clubs are neither of them averse to eating and drinking.
1841. Marryat, Poacher, x. She was carving a beefsteak-pie.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 359. A good beef-steak supper.
1883. Lond. Soc., XLIV. 111 (article), Some Beefsteakers.
