Serve
[sɜːv] or [sɝv]
Definition
(noun.) (sports) a stroke that puts the ball in play; 'his powerful serves won the game'.
(verb.) put the ball into play; 'It was Agassi's turn to serve'.
(verb.) do duty or hold offices; serve in a specific function; 'He served as head of the department for three years'; 'She served in Congress for two terms'.
(verb.) provide (usually but not necessarily food); 'We serve meals for the homeless'; 'She dished out the soup at 8 P.M.'; 'The entertainers served up a lively show'.
(verb.) help to some food; help with food or drink; 'I served him three times, and after that he helped himself'.
(verb.) mate with; 'male animals serve the females for breeding purposes'.
(verb.) deliver a warrant or summons to someone; 'He was processed by the sheriff'.
(verb.) work for or be a servant to; 'May I serve you?'; 'She attends the old lady in the wheelchair'; 'Can you wait on our table, please?'; 'Is a salesperson assisting you?'; 'The minister served the King for many years'.
(verb.) devote (part of) one's life or efforts to, as of countries, institutions, or ideas; 'She served the art of music'; 'He served the church'; 'serve the country'.
(verb.) contribute or conduce to; 'The scandal served to increase his popularity'.
(verb.) promote, benefit, or be useful or beneficial to; 'Art serves commerce'; 'Their interests are served'; 'The lake serves recreation'; 'The President's wisdom has served the country well'.
(verb.) serve a purpose, role, or function; 'The tree stump serves as a table'; 'The female students served as a control group'; 'This table would serve very well'; 'His freedom served him well'; 'The table functions as a desk'.
(verb.) spend time in prison or in a labor camp; 'He did six years for embezzlement'.
(verb.) do military service; 'She served in Vietnam'; 'My sons never served, because they are short-sighted'.
Editor: Timmy--From WordNet
Definition
(v. t.) To work for; to labor in behalf of; to exert one's self continuously or statedly for the benefit of; to do service for; to be in the employment of, as an inferior, domestic, serf, slave, hired assistant, official helper, etc.; specifically, in a religious sense, to obey and worship.
(v. t.) To be subordinate to; to act a secondary part under; to appear as the inferior of; to minister to.
(v. t.) To be suitor to; to profess love to.
(v. t.) To wait upon; to supply the wants of; to attend; specifically, to wait upon at table; to attend at meals; to supply with food; as, to serve customers in a shop.
(v. t.) Hence, to bring forward, arrange, deal, or distribute, as a portion of anything, especially of food prepared for eating; -- often with up; formerly with in.
(v. t.) To perform the duties belonging to, or required in or for; hence, to be of use to; as, a curate may serve two churches; to serve one's country.
(v. t.) To contribute or conduce to; to promote; to be sufficient for; to satisfy; as, to serve one's turn.
(v. t.) To answer or be (in the place of something) to; as, a sofa serves one for a seat and a couch.
(v. t.) To treat; to behave one's self to; to requite; to act toward; as, he served me very ill.
(v. t.) To work; to operate; as, to serve the guns.
(v. t.) To bring to notice, deliver, or execute, either actually or constructively, in such manner as the law requires; as, to serve a summons.
(v. t.) To make legal service opon (a person named in a writ, summons, etc.); as, to serve a witness with a subp/na.
(v. t.) To pass or spend, as time, esp. time of punishment; as, to serve a term in prison.
(v. t.) To copulate with; to cover; as, a horse serves a mare; -- said of the male.
(v. t.) To lead off in delivering (the ball).
(v. t.) To wind spun yarn, or the like, tightly around (a rope or cable, etc.) so as to protect it from chafing or from the weather. See under Serving.
(v. i.) To be a servant or a slave; to be employed in labor or other business for another; to be in subjection or bondage; to render menial service.
(v. i.) To perform domestic offices; to be occupied with household affairs; to prepare and dish up food, etc.
(v. i.) To be in service; to do duty; to discharge the requirements of an office or employment. Specifically, to act in the public service, as a soldier, seaman. etc.
(v. i.) To be of use; to answer a purpose; to suffice; to suit; to be convenient or favorable.
(v. i.) To lead off in delivering the ball.
Editor: Tod
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. [1]. Work for, labor for, be under the orders of, be subservient to.[2]. Aid, assist, help, succor, attend, oblige, wait on, minister to.[3]. Promote, advance, forward, benefit, contribute to, be of use to.[4]. Satisfy, content, be sufficient for.[5]. Treat, behave towards.
v. n. [1]. Be a servant, be a slave, be in bondage, be in subjection.[2]. Obey, be dutiful, perform duty.[3]. Answer, do, conduce, minister, be sufficient, be of use, pass muster.[4]. Suit, be convenient, be suitable.
Typed by Leigh
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Obey, minister, subserve, help, work_for, forward, attend, suffice_for, assist,benefit, answer, promote, tend, accommodate
ANT:Command, disobey, thwart, oppose, resist, counteract, contradict, neutralize,baffle, retard, obstruct
Editor: Michel
Definition
v.t. to be a servant to to work for and obey: to attend or wait upon: to work for: to obey: to be subservient or subordinate to: to wait upon at table &c.: to do duty for: to treat behave towards: to render worship to: to aid by good offices: to minister to a priest at mass: to comply with: to requite: to handle manipulate: to furnish: (naut.) to bind with small cord: (law) to deliver or present formally: to furnish: to cover of stallions &c.: to deliver the ball in tennis.—v.i. to be employed as a servant to discharge any regular duty: to be in subjection: to suffice to avail to be suitable or favourable.—n. in tennis the act of the first player in striking the ball or the style in which this is done.—ns. Ser′vage (obs.) servitude: the service of a lover; Ser′ver one who serves: an attendant on the priest at the celebration of the Eucharist: the player who strikes the tennis-ball first: a salver any utensil for distributing or helping at table.—Serve an office to discharge the duties of an office; Serve a process or writ to formally communicate a process or writ to the person to whom it is addressed; Serve an attachment to levy such a writ on the person or goods by seizure; Serve an execution to levy an execution on the person or goods by seizure; Serve a sentence to undergo the punishment prescribed by a judicial sentence; Serve one a trick to play a trick on one; Serve one out to take revenge on some one; Serve one right to treat one as he deserves; Serve one's time to complete one's apprenticeship; Serve out to deal or distribute; Serve the purpose of to answer adequately an end for which something else is designed; Serve the turn to suffice for one's immediate purpose or need; Serve time to undergo a period of imprisonment &c.; Serve up to bring to table.
Inputed by Augustine
Examples
- They have a kind of hard flints, which, by grinding against other stones, they form into instruments, that serve instead of wedges, axes, and hammers. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
- She shall serve me the allotted time. Edgar Rice Burroughs. The Gods of Mars.
- The same notion lies imbedded in the phrase: government must serve the people. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- I should then have done all that a man in my position could do to serve the interests of my old friend's only child. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- No man ever can have been more desirous in his heart to serve a friend, than I am to serve mine, if I knew how. Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
- What you want me to serve, is nothing, mere nothing. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- This made it very difficult for the housewife to serve the breakfast hot, and particularly the toast, which is a favorite dish of our breakfast table. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- If the guests chose to partake of what was served, he saw no objection; but it was served for the maintenance of his rank. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- Nobody has ever been served so! Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- A great stone that I happened to find, after a long search, by the sea-shore, served me for an anchor. Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
- He had no weapon, excepting a poniard at his belt, which served to counterbalance the weight of the bunch of rusty keys that hung at his right side. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- That would have served me right, though. Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist.
- Served him jolly well right! Fergus Hume. The Island of Fantasy.
- He was from Grimsby, as I told you, and he served his apprenticeship there. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- I must indeed, I said; for when just now I repeated the offer of serving him for a deacon, he expressed himself shocked at my want of decency. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- On board serving as third mate was George Radfoot. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- We were eating at the inn from where the buses leave and the room was crowded and people were singing and there was difficulty serving. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- We must begin by showing how the Diamond first fell into the hands of my uncle Herncastle, when he was serving in India fifty years since. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- To collect documents is one mode of serving your country, and to remember the contents of a document is another. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- He was serving in a war and he gave absolute loyalty and as complete a performance as he could give while he was serving. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- Here, its power was only a glare: a stifling, sickly glare, serving but to bring forward stains and dirt that might otherwise have slept. Jane Austen. Mansfield Park.
- An electric pad serves the same purpose as a hot water bag. Bertha M. Clark. General Science.
- Ordinarily a combination of products best serves the ends of the physician. Bertha M. Clark. General Science.
- There was, if my memory serves me, but one small steamer to transport troops and baggage when the 4th infantry arrived. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- A cheap pump is then attached to the upper end of the drill pipe and serves to raise the water. Bertha M. Clark. General Science.
- In Europe, corn is the principal produce of land, which serves immediately for human food. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
- Another and cheaper product experimented with is the pith of the cornstalk, which is much lighter than the cocoanut fiber and serves the same purpose. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- This, if my memory serves me correctly, broke through the only pontoon bridge we had in all our march across the peninsula. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
Typed by Borg