Encounter beef, say (4)
I believe the answer is:
meet
'encounter' is the definition.
(I know that encounter can be written as meet)
'beef say' is the wordplay.
'beef' becomes 'meat' (I've seen this in another clue).
'say' indicates a 'sounds like' (homophone) clue.
'meat' sounds like 'MEET'.
(Other definitions for meet that I've seen before include "Deal with - encounter" , "Come across" , "Fitting - encounter" , "Appropriate" , "Confront" .)