meat - general words

meat

meat S2 W3 /miːt/ BrE AmE noun
[Language: Old English; Origin: mete 'food']
1. [uncountable and countable] the flesh of animals and birds eaten as food:
I gave up eating meat a few months ago.
raw meat
a meat pie
a selection of cold meats
red meat (=a dark-coloured meat, for example ↑beef)
white meat (=meat that is pale in colour, for example ↑chicken)
2. [uncountable] something interesting or important in a talk, book, film etc:
There’s no meat to their arguments.
We then got down to the real meat of the debate (=the main and most interesting part of it).
3. somebody doesn’t have much meat on him/her British Englishneed some (more) meat on your bones American English informal used to say that someone looks very thin
4. one man’s meat is another man’s poison used to say that something that one person likes may not be liked by someone else
5. be easy meat British English informal if someone is easy meat, they are easy to defeat, deceive, or hurt
be easy meat for
San Marino should be easy meat for England in next week’s match.
6. the meat and potatoes American English informal the most important or basic parts of a discussion, decision, piece of work etc:
Let’s get down to the meat and potatoes. How much are you going to pay me for this?
7. be meat and drink to somebody British English to be something that someone enjoys doing or finds very easy to do because they have done it many times before:
The first five questions in the quiz were about football, which was meat and drink to Brian.
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COLLOCATIONS
■ verbs
▪ eat meat I don't eat meat - I'm vegetarian. | People are eating less meat these days.
▪ have meat in it (=contain meat) Does this stew have meat in it?
■ adjectives
▪ raw (=not cooked) The dogs are fed on raw meat.
▪ cooked How will I know when the meat is cooked?
▪ undercooked (=not cooked enough) Eating undercooked meat can make you very ill.
▪ tough (=difficult to chew) The meat was tough and chewy.
▪ lean (=with little fat) Try to eat more lean meat, fish and chicken.
▪ fatty (=with a lot of fat) People are being urged to eat less fatty meat.
▪ red meat (=a dark-coloured meat such as beef) For health reasons, you should eat less red meat.
▪ white meat (=a light-coloured meat such as chicken) White meat is supposed to be healthier.
■ phrases
▪ a joint of meat British English (=a large piece of meat, sometimes containing a bone) He began to carve the joint of meat.
▪ a cut of meat (=a joint of meat taken from a particular part of an animal) Cheaper cuts of meat can be tough.
▪ a slice of meat (=a thin piece of meat cut from a larger piece) He helped himself to another slice of meat.