Side being forced to swap ends causes beef? (4)
I believe the answer is:
meat
'beef?' is the definition.
(I know that Meat is a type of beef)
'side being forced to swap ends' is the wordplay.
'side' suggests removing the centre (I've seen 'sides of' mean this (only the letters on the sides remain)).
'being forced' becomes 'made' (both can mean coerced).
'to' says to put letters next to each other.
'swap ends' becomes 'at' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'made' with its centre removed is 'me'.
'me'+'at'='MEAT'
'causes' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for meat that I've seen before include "Ham, pork, chicken etc" , "Eg, beef or pork" , "grub, say" , "Flesh for eating" , "Spam, ham, lamb etc" .)