beefhead n.
1. a fool, a simpleton [backform. f. beefheaded ].
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | in Burke’s Correspondence (1844) II 86: The petition should be framed so as to draw off some of the beef-heads who are disposed against it . | |
| Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Beef Head a great Chuckle headed fellow. | |
| Taunton Courier 28 July 3/1: Let but Mr Beefhead, the apoplectic flesher, rise to second a motion [etc.]. | |
| Sl. Dict. | |
| Cornishman 4 Sept. 4/2: John Bull is again a Beefhead. For notonly have the lying Dutch and Germans crept back [etc.]. | |
| Guardian 23 Aug. 34/4: ‘Take that! You girl-stealing beefhead!’. |
2. (US) a Texan, a cowboy.
 | Amer. Citizen (Butler, PA) 26 Sept. 2/4: Nicknames [...] Texas, beef-heads. | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Semi-Wkly Louisianan 31 Aug. 1/3: The Nicknames of the States [...] Rhode Island, gun flints; South Carolina, weasels; Tennessee, whelps; Texas, beefheads; Vermont, green mountain boys; Wisconsin, badgers. | |
| Chicago Weekly News 29 Apr. 4/3: Texans [...] are Beef-Heads for some unknown reason [DA]. | |
| Progressive Farmer (Winston, NC) 17 May 14/2: Texas. Beefheads. | |
| Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 24/1: Beef-heads or Cow-boys (American). People of Texas and the West of U.S.A. — from the general employment of the inhabitants being the harrying of cattle. | |
| ‘Nicknames of States & Their Inhabitants’ in AS XXVII:3 183: Another variant is Beefheads for Texans. |
3. (UK black) a skinhead, usu. synon. with a member of a right-wing/racist party.
| (con. 1981) East of Acre Lane 23: If it was de beef’eads, you t’ink dey will try de same t’ing? |
In derivatives
stupid, foolish.
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Scots Mag. 4 Mar. 26/1: She has now ventured to tell him a little of her mind [...] ‘ignorant booby’, and ‘plumb-pudding’, ‘beef-headed puppy’ and ‘sneaking dog’ echo from room to room. | |
| ‘Bold Irishman’ Collection of Eng. Ballads 91: A beef-headed butcher was then standing by. | |
| Wkly Rake (NY) 12 Nov. n.p.: the rake wants to know If the beef-headed blower [...] hadn’t better find some other employment than that of snooping into people’s drawers. | |
| Gloucester Jrnl 6 Nov. 2/2: He was not such a beef-headed fool as Herbert. | |
| ‘The Blacksmith of the Mountain Pass’ in Polly Peablossom’s Wedding 83: What’ll you do if I don’t whip you this time, you beef-headed disciple, you? | |
| Dundee Advertiser 23 Jan. 2/1: It was then [...] suggested that we were getting too beef-headed for any work requiring either energy or inventiveness. | |
| , , | | Sl. Dict. 72: BEEF-HEADED, stupid. |
| Burnley Gaz. 28 Dec. 5/1: An extraordinary number of beef-headed gentlemen. | |
| Savage London 142: O, but he wur beef-headed. I’d have punched his canister, that I would, to drive some sense into it. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 1: Beef-headed - Stupid, fat-headed, dull. | |
| Behind A Bus 11: I don’t believe that the wicked little flirt cared a bit for the butcher, but that beef-headed young fellow thought she did. | |
| Bath Chronicle 29 Aug. 6/1: These admirable souls of old ‘spiritualise,’ electro-magnetically, their beef-headed followers. | |
| Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 24/1: Beef-headed. Stupid. |