Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The meat of a calf.
  • noun A calf raised to be slaughtered for food.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A calf.
  • noun The flesh of the calf used for food.
  • noun Same as deaconed veal.
  • To raise (calves) for sale as veal.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The flesh of a calf when killed and used for food.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The flesh of a calf used for food.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun meat from a calf

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English veel, from Old French, from Latin vitellus, diminutive of vitulus, calf; see wet- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Anglo-Norman veal, from Latin vitellus, diminutive of vitulus ("calf").

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Examples

  • As the goats, taking refuge in the more inaccessible parts of the country, could with difficulty be killed, the crews subsisted on the flesh of the young seals, which they called veal, and on that of the sea-lions, which was denominated beef.

    Notable Voyagers From Columbus to Nordenskiold William Henry Giles Kingston 1847

  • The meat - beef is fine, but I used ground pork and veal from the Italian butchers in Sydney Road.

    Archive 2004-12-01 2004

  • The meat - beef is fine, but I used ground pork and veal from the Italian butchers in Sydney Road.

    What I cooked last night. 2004

  • Although I know some Chefs do it, I’m always a little suspicious when I read a menu that describes an Entrée that has been slowly simmered in veal or game stock.

    Thanksgiving Dinner 2004 2004

  • For a main I have veal, which is well cooked and tender without being overexciting.

    Restaurant: The Mulberry Tree, Boughton Monchelsea, Kent 2010

  • They even ate the cow's baby's -- called veal -- because they liked the taste tender flesh.

    Kathy Freston: Future Shock 2009

  • These hydromorphic savannas, called veal in the French literature, are commonly saturated for at least six months of the year.

    Tonle Sap freshwater swamp forests 2007

  • As we are all discovering, however, the sickening truth is that these things are done to hundreds of thousands of male calves every year throughout the United States to produce the meat known as veal, or more specifically "white veal".

    Dairy Cows and Veal Calves 2006

  • The same monstrous depravity appears in their veal, which is bleached by repeated bleedings, and other villainous arts, till there is not

    The Expedition of Humphry Clinker 2004

  • Perhaps a man hitched to the cart of a Martian or roasted on the spit by inhabitants of the Milky Way will recall the veal cutlet he used to slice on his dinner plate and apologize (belatedly!) to the cow.

    The Unbearable Lightness of Being Kundera, Milan, 1929- 1984

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