serve

1 of 2

verb

ˈsərv

served; serving

Synonyms of serve next

intransitive verb

: to be a servant

: to do military or naval service

: to assist a celebrant as server at mass

: to be of use

in a day when few people could write, seals served as signatures—

Elizabeth W. King

: to be favorable, opportune, or convenient

: to be worthy of reliance or trust

if memory serves

: to hold an office : discharge a duty or function

serve on a jury

: to prove adequate or satisfactory : suffice

it will serve for this task

: to help persons to food: such as

: to wait at table

: to set out portions of food or drink

: to wait on customers

: to put the ball or shuttlecock in play in various games (such as tennis, volleyball, or badminton)

transitive verb

: to be a servant to : attend

: to give the service and respect due to (a superior)

: to comply with the commands or demands of : gratify

: to give military or naval service to

: to perform the duties of (an office or post)

: to act as server at (mass)

archaic : to pay a lover's or suitor's court to (a lady)

that gentle lady, whom I love and serve—

Edmund Spenser

: to work through (a term of service)

: to put in (a term of imprisonment)

: to wait on at table

: to bring (food) to a diner

: present, provide

—usually used with up

the novel served up many laughs

: to furnish or supply with something needed or desired

: to wait on (a customer) in a store

: to furnish professional service to

: to answer the needs of

: to be enough for : suffice

: to contribute or conduce to : promote

: to treat or act toward in a specified way

he served me ill

: to bring to notice, deliver, or execute as required by law

: to make legal service upon (a person named in a process)

of a male animal : to copulate with

: to wind yarn or wire tightly around (a rope or stay) for protection

: to provide services that benefit or help

: to put (the ball or shuttlecock) in play (as in tennis, volleyball, or badminton)

serve

2 of 2

noun

: the act or action of putting the ball or shuttlecock in play in various games (such as volleyball, badminton, or tennis)

also : a turn to serve

it's your serve

Phrases

serve one right

: to be deserved

Examples of serve in a Sentence

Verb Soup was served as the first course. The waiter served our meals quickly. The restaurant serves excellent Italian food. The waiter who served us was very nice. Feel free to serve yourself at the salad bar. You carve the turkey, and I'll serve. The roast should serve six. I'm afraid all of our salespeople are serving other customers right now. What can we do to serve our customers better? Noun She started the game with a powerful serve.

Recent Examples on the Web

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Verb

The onions served at the McDonald’s locations are past their shelf life and no longer for sale. —

Jonel Aleccia, The Denver Post, 13 Nov. 2024 Drop the smoking rosemary sprig into the drink and serve. —

Jeff Burkhart, The Mercury News, 13 Nov. 2024

Noun

McDonald’s franchises haven’t been able to fix the soft serve ice cream machines on their own because manufacturing company Taylor owns the copyright and exclusive rights to fix the machines — until now. —

Jordan Valinsky, CNN, 28 Oct. 2024 Published by Simon and Schuster on Oct. 1, the true crime exposé serves as both a deep dive into the fledgling years of the 90210 and a guide to Hollywood’s most extraordinary criminal cases. —

Jack Dunn, Variety, 9 Oct. 2024 See all Example Sentences for serve

Word History

Etymology

Verb

Middle English serven, sarven "to perform a duty, be employed, assume the role of personal attendant, be of use (of a body part), perform religious rites, provide food and drink (to people at a table), deliver (a legal writ)," borrowed from Anglo-French & Medieval Latin; Anglo-French servir, borrowed from Medieval Latin serviō, servīre, going back to Latin, "to perform duties for (a master) in the capacity of a slave, act in subservience, be at the service of," verbal derivative of servus "slave," perhaps, if the original sense was "watcher (of flocks), guardian," derivative with the nominal suffix *-u̯o-, of the Indo-European verbal base *ser- "keep watch on, guard," whence, with varying ablaut and derivation, Greek (Homeric) epì…órontai "they kept watch over," Greek éphoros "watcher, overseer," phrourós "guard, watchman" (< *pro-horós), phrourā́ "guard duty," Avestan nišhauruuaiti "(s/he) keeps watch on" (from a stem *har-u̯a-), pasuš.hauruua "guarding the flock (of a dog)," harətar- "watcher, guardian"

Note: The above etymology of Latin servus "slave" is carefully argued by Helmut Rix (Die Termini der Unfreiheit in den Sprachen Alt-Italiens, Stuttgart, 1994, pp. 54-88), who rejects claims that the word is of Etruscan origin. Rix hypothesizes that between about 700 b.c. and 450 b.c., as most transhumant shepherds in the Italian peninsula came to be slaves, an agent noun meaning "flock guard" developed a secondary sense "slave," and by the time of the earliest Latin texts had largely lost its original meaning (with pāstor becoming the usual word for a shepherd—see pastor entry 1). The presumption is that Italic languages—as Indo-European languages generally—lacked a word for "slave," as slavery was an institution endemic to older Mediterranean and Middle Eastern civilizations. Note that Umbrian has a verb exemplified by the imperative seritu "(let him/her) protect!" that corresponds in form but not in sense to Latin servīre, which had been repurposed to reflect the new meaning of the noun *seru̯os. Rix hypothesizes that the Latin verb servāre "to watch over, look after" originally meant exclusively "to watch (the skies for an omen)," as a derivative of a noun *seru̯ā or *seru̯om "observation (of the skies)," and suggests that its senses expanded to cover those formerly held by the repurposed verb servīre.

Noun

derivative of serve entry 1

First Known Use

Verb

13th century, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1a

Noun

1688, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler

The first known use of serve was in the 13th century

See more words from the same century

Cite this Entry

Style

“Serve.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/serve. Accessed 25 Nov. 2024.

Copy Citation

Kids Definition

serve

1 of 2 verb

ˈsərv

served; serving

: to be a servant

: to give the service and respect due

: to work through or perform a term of service

served five years in the marines

: to be in prison for or during

served a 10-year sentence

: to act officially as a clergyman or priest

serve mass

: to assist as server at mass

: to be of use : answer a purpose

the tree serves as shelter

: to be favorable or convenient

when the time serves

: to hold an office : perform a duty

serve on a jury

: to be enough for

a pie that will serve eight people

: to help persons to food (as at a table or counter)

: to set out portions of food or drink

: to furnish or supply with something needed or desired

: to wait on customers

: to treat or act toward in a certain way

they served me ill

: to bring to notice, deliver, or carry out as required by law

serve a summons

: to make a serve (as in tennis)

serve

2 of 2 noun

: the act of putting the ball or shuttlecock in play (as in tennis or badminton)

Legal Definition

serve

transitive verb

served; serving

: to deliver, publish, or execute (notice or process) as required by law

no notice of any such request was ever served on the husband—

National Law Journal

: to make legal service upon (the person named in a process) : inform or notify by legal service

unless the city had been served with prior notice of a defect—

Gene Mustain

: to put in (a term of imprisonment)

has served five years of her sentence

Last Updated: 16 Nov 2024 - Updated example sentences

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serve

verb

noun

Synonyms

Examples of serve in a Sentence

Word History

Dictionary Entries Near serve

Cite this Entry

Kids Definition

Legal Definition