Forms: 5 steike, steyke, styke, 5–6 steke, 6 steake, 7–8 stake, 7– steak. [a. ON. steik fem. (Sw. stek, Da. steg), cogn. w. steikja to roast on a spit, stikna to be roasted.]
1. A thick slice or strip of meat cut for roasting by grilling or frying, sometimes used in a pie or pudding; esp. a piece cut from the hind quarters of the animal; when used without qualification = BEEF-STEAK; also with qualifying word indicating the part from which it is cut, as rump, sirloin steak.
14[?]. King & Hermit, 373, in Hazlitt, E. P. P. (1864), I. 27. Fyll this eft, and late us lyke, And between rost us a styke.
c. 1420. Two Cookery Bks., 3. To make stekys of venysoun or Beef.
1426. Lydg., De Guil. Pilgr., 12802. Now to ffrye, now steykēs make, And many other soteltes.
c. 1450. Douce MS. 55, xvij. Take feyre moton of the buttes & kutt it in maner of stekes.
1530. Palsgr., 275/2. Steke of flesshe, charbonnee.
1646. Quarles, Sheph. Oracles, IV. 39. You can convert a dish Of Steakes to Roots.
1735. Dyche & Pardon, Dict., Stake,… a small Slice of Meat to be broiled before or on the Fire, when a Person cannot or will not stay till a regular Joint is boiled or roasted, &c.
1747. Mrs. Glasse, Cookery, i. 6. To Broil Steaks…. Take fine Rump Steaks about Half an Inch thick [etc.]. Ibid. As to Mutton and Pork Steaks, you must keep them turning quick on the Gridiron. Ibid., ii. 16. Cut a Neck of Veal into Steaks.
1842. Tennyson, Will Waterproof, 148. How out of place she makes The violet of a legend blow Among the chops and steaks!
1848. Dickens, Dombey, iv. Uncle Sol and his nephew were speedily engaged on a fried sole with a prospect of steak to follow.
b. A thick slice (of cod, salmon, halibut or hake).
1883. Standard, 30 Nov., 2/2. ‘G. S. C.’s’ Fishmonger charged 10d. per lb. for his best cod steaks.
c. transf. and fig. Now rare or Obs.
1607. Middleton, Five Gallants, IV. v. F 4 b. Bun. You must not thinke to tread ath ground when you come there.—Go. No, how then? Bun. Why vpon paths made of fig-frailes, & white blankets cut out in steakes. Ibid. (1607), Phœnix, I. v. C 3 b. Is that your Lackey yonder, in the steakes of veluet.
a. 1616. Beaum. & Fl., Maid in Will, IV. ii. Bust. Safe? do you hear? take notice what plight you find me in, if there want but a collop or steak o’ me, look to’t.
1641. Milton, Reform., II. 44. Their Malvezzi that can cut Tacitus into slivers and steaks.
1694. Motteux, Rabelais, V. xvi. 73. With this he lugg’d out his slashing Cutlas … to cut the cousening Varlets into Stakes.
2. Similative uses.
† a. Sea steak. (See quot.) Obs. [Cf. STICK sb.]
1798. Rep. Herring Fisheries, in Rep. Committees Ho. Comm. (1803), X. 215/2. Sea Steaks, which mean Herrings in their first state of being barrelled.
b. Two-eyed steak slang: see quot. 1894.
1893. Farmer, Slang, s.v. Glasgow Magistrate, Two-eye’d steak.
1894. Daily News, 4 Sept., 5/2. Mr. George Augustus Sala writes to say ‘a two-eyed steak’ is a red herring or bloater cut open—otherwise a ‘kippered’ herring.
c. Hamburg steak: a dish composed of flat balls of meat like fillets, made of chopped lean beef, mixed with beaten eggs, chopped onions and seasoning, and fried.
1892. Encycl. Cookery, I. 117/2. Fried Hamburg Steak served with Russian Sauce.
3. attrib. and Comb., as steak-meat, pie, piece, pudding; in names of implements for beating raw steak to make it tender, as steak-beater (Simmonds, Dict. Trade, 1858), -crusher, -masher (Knight, Dict. Mech., 1875); steak broiler (see quot.); steak fish, cod of a size suitable for cutting into steaks; steak-tongs (see quot.).
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Steak-broiler, a gridiron which catches the gravy from the steak.
1894. Outing (U.S.), XXIII. 404/1. *Steak fish are cod measuring twenty-two inches or more in length.
1901. Westm. Gaz., 27 Dec., 2/3. We bought … a pound of beer (it must be *steak meat) for our black eyes.
1844. H. Stephens, Bk. Farm, II. 171. The plan of cutting the line between … the rump and aitch-bone in the hind quarter, lays open the *steak-pieces to better advantage.
1747. Mrs. Glasse, Cookery, vi. 69. A *Stake-Pudding.
1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, *Steak-tongs, small tongs for turning chops or steaks when broiling on a gridiron.
