veal

IPA/viːl/
KK[vˈil]IPA/viːl/

veal — noun

1. the soft meat of a calf that people cook and eat

1.nounB1
Definition

the soft meat of a calf that people cook and eat

Example

At lunch, Rafael ordered veal with potatoes and green beans.

menu item: order veal

The chef cooked the veal slowly so it stayed tender.

food preparation: cook veal

Common collocations
  • fresh veal
  • roast veal
  • veal cutlet
  • veal stew
Synonyms
  • calf meat

    clear explanatory phrase, but less common than simply saying 'veal'

Grammar Patterns

eat veal

cook veal

order veal

veal cutlet

Usage Note

Usually uncountable when you mean the meat as food. Use calf for the living young animal, not veal.

Common Mistakes

We had calf for dinner.
We had veal for dinner.
'calf' names the young animal, while 'veal' names the meat used as food.

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Veal is more specific than beef. Both come from cattle, but veal means meat from a calf, while beef usually means meat from an older animal. Lamb is also tender meat, yet it comes from a young sheep, not cattle. Pork comes from pigs and is used in different kinds of dishes. Because veal is a narrow food word, speakers do not use it as a general word for meat. A menu may offer veal with lemon sauce, but it would list beef steak, lamb chops, or pork noodles when the meat comes from another animal.

veal ↗beef ↗lamb ↗pork ↗

Etymology

LatinOld FrenchAnglo-FrenchEnglish

English borrowed veal from Anglo-French and Old French forms that go back to Latin vitellus, meaning a young calf. That history helps explain why English uses calf for the animal but veal for the meat served as food.

First known use

14th century

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1 Verb