beef trust

noun

A group of overweight or obese people.

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Meanings

nounbeef trust (plural beef trusts)

plural beef trusts

  1. USslangA group of overweight or obese people.

    The beef trust was out in full force – these landladies were all shaped up like barrels, wherever there wasn't a crease in their meat there was a dimple.

    1946, Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow, Bernard Wolfe, “Tea Don’t Do You that Way”, in Really the Blues, New York, N.Y.: Random House, book 2 (1923–1928: Chicago, Chicago), page 91

Origin

Originally the name of a conglomerate of beef producers; later adopted ironically by US carnival showman WB ‘Billy’ Watson, who used it as the name for his sideshow of overweight women.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

beef trust. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/beef%20trust

MLA

“beef trust.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/beef%20trust. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “beef trust,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/beef%20trust.

Source: beef trust on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.