Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also biff-bam, biffing, a blow, a slap, a punch, a beating; violence; also fig.; thus (Aus.) biff merchant.

1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant I 111: Biff (Americanism), to give [one] a ‘biff in the jaw’.
1890		Sporting Times 22 Feb. 2/3: When the French law is down on a man, it gives him biff; there is no forty bob or seven days, but forty bob and seven days.
1895		Coburg Leader (Vic.) 19 Oct. 4/2: Frank F. says he will deal out biff if his name is in They Say.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Dec. 14/1: Then, hauling off, right in his face they suddenly let fly / Two fearful biffs.
1901		A. Binstead More Gal’s Gossip 179: An objection to the winner [...] on the grounds of bumping, biffing, and boring.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 26 Mar. 1/1: Black ladies and biff figured largely in the assault case at Armadale.
1908		Magnet 14 Mar. 14: Come out from under that bed, so that I can give you another biff.
1908		E.H. Shackleton ‘Shellback’ in Aurora Australis n.p.: And his body was lusty and strong as that of a young man, for could he not with one biff, which is to say, sallikatowzer, of his clenched hand, totally flummax, or in the modern tongue, put to sleep, a fullgrown and stalwart man.
1911		Sun. Times (Perth) 16 July 6/6: A ju-jitsu Jap weighing 10 st. met a 12st. biff merchant in a public bout at Melbourne.
1914		Truth (Melbourne) 17 Jan. 4/8: The man who doesn’t go through the world eternally looking for agument or biff.
1915		Wodehouse Psmith Journalist (1993) 188: We must [...] deliver him such a series of resentful biffs that he will abandon his little game and become a model citizen.
1923		Sport (Adelaide) 20 Apr. 9: [headline] The Descent of the Scientific Pug And the Ascent of the Unorthodox Biff Merchant.
1926		‘Sapper’ Final Count 928: Good biff [...] I’ve got the other beauty.
1929		E. Dahlberg Bottom Dogs 261: Then there came a biffing at the door.
1930		L. Lower Here’s Luck 169: ‘Let bygones be bygones,’ I said, ‘What is a biff in the neck between father and son?’ .
1935		E.F. Benson Mapp and Lucia (1984) 114: She gave the door such a biff that the hasp pulled out.
1944		S. Horler Lady with the Limp 100: Then when I do go out, I get a biff on the nut.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1950		A. Buckeridge Jennings Goes To School 248: I’ll just do a soft biff then.
1960		J.R. Ackerley We Think The World Of You (1971) 85: I [...] gave her the soundest biffing with my hands that she had so far received from me.
1970		L. Bangs in Psychotic Reactions (1988) 38: Do your worst [...] get your kicks and biffs. It’s your night.
1976		D. Ireland Glass Canoe (1982) 212: And when they were drunk, what then? A bit of biff? Not on your life.
1977		E. Torres Q&A 91: If it gets down to the biff-bams, you can do him up.
1981		(con. c.1920) P. Crosbie Your Dinner’s Poured Out! 174: For every chalk-mark a scholar received one ‘biff’ from the Brother.
1983		R. Aven-Bray Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 19: Biff Merchant Standover man. [Ibid.] 41: Robbery with the Biff Robbery with violence.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Biff. 1. As in a reception biff, where a prisoner might be beaten by guards on arrival. Made notorious in Grafton Gaol (NSW) up to 1976. Very much equivalent to running the gauntlet.
1999		Indep. Rev. 28 Aug. 5: Sacred cows like Peel inevitably come in for the occasional biffing.
2003		Bug (Aus.) June 🌐 Deadset, the Bash loves a barrage of biff and an ocean of claret as much as the next true league fan.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] [a beating administered to all new prisoners on arrival] I [...] remembered what other tracs had told me about the reception biff [...] Never yell or make a noise during the flogging.

2. (Aus.) a bailiff.

1895

Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 8: Biffs, bailiffs.

3. (Aus.) a prizefight.

1904

Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 28 Sept. 6/2: [headline] ‘Biff’ at Cobar / Murphy Beats Stewart / A Good Fight and a Just Decision.

4. (Aus. school) in pl., a caning.

1941

Baker Popular Dict. Aus. Sl.

5. a fool [? one who has suffered a sense 1 on the head or one who has a beef brain or head].

2003

N. Griffiths Stump 201: — Learn to talk proper, yeh fuckin biff.