Deserve

[dɪ'zɜːv] or [dɪ'zɝv]

Definition

(verb.) be worthy or deserving; 'You deserve a promotion after all the hard work you have done' .

Inputed by Hahn--From WordNet

Definition

(v. t.) To earn by service; to be worthy of (something due, either good or evil); to merit; to be entitled to; as, the laborer deserves his wages; a work of value deserves praise.

(v. t.) To serve; to treat; to benefit.

(v. i.) To be worthy of recompense; -- usually with ill or with well.

Inputed by Jules

Synonyms and Synonymous

v. a. Merit, be worthy of, be entitled to.

Inputed by Donald

Synonyms and Antonyms

SYN:Merit, earn, justify, win

ANT:Forfeit, misdeserve, lose

Checker: Roberta

Definition

v.t. to earn by service: to merit.—v.i. to be worthy of reward.—adj. Deserv′ing worthy.—n. desert.—advs. Deserv′ingly Deserv′edly according to desert: justly.

Typed by Humphrey

Examples

I deserve neither such praise nor such censure, cried Elizabeth; I am _not_ a great reader, and I have pleasure in many things. Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.
No father could claim the gratitude of his child so completely as I should deserve their's. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
I shall conclude this subject with two reflections, which may deserve our attention. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
If I had--killed your--mother with my own hand--I should not deserve such a scourging to the bone as this. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
She is not a clever girl, but she has better sense than you are aware of, and does not deserve to have her understanding spoken of so slightingly. Jane Austen. Emma.
Could she believe Miss Crawford to deserve him, it would be--oh, how different would it be--how far more tolerable! Jane Austen. Mansfield Park.
She might love, but she did not deserve Edmund by any other sentiment. Jane Austen. Mansfield Park.
They will recompense him now, I hope, as he deserves. Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
The subject well deserves to be discussed at great length, but I will here take only a single case, that of working or sterile ants. Charles Darwin. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
Whenever she is with us, Mrs. Cole does not know how to shew her kindness enough; and I must say that Jane deserves it as much as any body can. Jane Austen. Emma.
A young man really well deserves constant support and patronage,' looking at the Doctor, 'who makes such sacrifices. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
The effect of this situation in crippling the teacher's sense of humor has not received the attention which it deserves. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
Not the least curious of the smaller contrivances is an apparatus which deserves notice as a useful application of magnetism to manufacturing purposes. Frederick C. Bakewell. Great Facts.
If he knew them better, he would value their society as it deserves; for they are in fact exactly the sort of people he would like. Jane Austen. Mansfield Park.
When I spoke again I was composed enough to treat his impertinence with the silent contempt that it deserved. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
And I fancy I jolly well deserved it, he added thoughtfully. Edgar Rice Burroughs. Tarzan of the Apes.
He deserved it all--all labour, all devotion, all sacrifice; I would have toiled up a scaleless Alp, to pluck a flower that would please him. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
He and all the world thought hardly of me for my strange, unmotherly resolve, and I deserved to be misjudged. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
She deserved what he said, and worse. Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist.
I deserved the evil I have encountered, for forgetting his fate even in that of his son! Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
You have deserved my trust, and, what is of far more importance in my estimation, you have deserved my father's trust, out of which mine grew. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
And I am glad of another thing, and that is, that of course you know you may depend upon my keeping it and always so far deserving it. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
She is engaged to be married to a most worthy and deserving man in her own station of life. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
She made him, by her acceptance, as happy even as he is deserving. Jane Austen. Emma.
And should you like to be always taken care of here, if you were industrious and deserving? Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
And while he is deserving of gratitude for his actions in the early part of the movement and up until the most recent time-- Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
This was not satisfactory, but I regarded it as deserving another letter and wrote him as follows: April 8, 1865. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
How could you suppose that my first thought would not fly towards those dear, dear friends whom I love, and who are so deserving of my love. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.

Editor: Susanna