big as bull-beef

An old-fashioned British slang simile meaning extremely large or impressively big — as massive and solid as a bull. The comparison to bull beef (the meat of a bull, considered especially large and substantial) makes the size claim vivid and physical. While largely archaic today, it survives in historical literature and as a colorful example of the earthy, livestock-inflected comparisons common in pre-industrial British speech.

(simile, slang, archaic) Very big.