Italian beef
English
![](Images/wiktionary/Mmm..._Italian_beef_(6286691399).jpg.webp)
An Italian beef sandwich with a lot of onions and peppers.
Etymology
Shortening of "Italian beef sandwich", because the sandwiches were made, using beef, by Italian immigrants in Chicago.
Noun
Italian beef (plural Italian beefs)
- (US) A sandwich of thin slices of seasoned roast beef on a dense, long Italian-style roll.
- 2006, Losing Weight The Old-Fashioned Way (in Ebony, volume 61, number 9, page 77)
- I changed my eating habits and stopped eating after 6 p.m. I switched from eating Italian beefs, drinking high-calorie mocha lattes and big sodas to drinking lots of water, eating salmon and having oatmeal for breakfast.
- 2009, 500 Things to Eat Before It's Too Late, page 261:
- Chicago's Mr. Beef is one of the best places to enjoy an Italian beef.
- 2013, Fried Walleye and Cherry Pie: Midwestern Writers on Food, page 24:
- One evening in the autumn of my freshman year, my appetite casually drifted toward the pleasant thought of an Italian beef. Maybe double-dipped (sopped with gravy), hot and sweet (with giardiniera and peppers).
- 2006, Losing Weight The Old-Fashioned Way (in Ebony, volume 61, number 9, page 77)