Strong meat to the Yankee (5)
I believe the answer is:
beefy
'strong' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'meat to the yankee' is the wordplay.
'meat' becomes 'beef' (type of meet).
'to the yankee' becomes 'Y' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'beef'+'y'='BEEFY'
(Other definitions for beefy that I've seen before include "Burly" , "Muscular, robust" , "Athletic and muscular (non-vegetarian?)" , "like some bully?" , "Solid" .)