English Explanatory Dictionary

serve

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun

An act of putting the ball or shuttlecock in play in various games.
A portion of food or drink, a serving.
An impressive presentation (especially of a person's appearance).

verb

To provide a service (or, by extension, a product, especially food or drink).
To be a formal servant for (a god or deity); to worship in an official capacity.
To be a servant for; to work for, to be employed by.
To wait upon (someone) at table; to set food and drink in front of, to help (someone) to food, meals etc.
To render service by being a servant, worker, employee, or officeholder; to hold those roles and perform their duties.
To set down (food or drink) on the table to be eaten; to bring (food, drink) to a person.
To treat (someone) in a given manner.
To be suitor to; to be the lover of.
To be effective.
To be useful to; to meet the needs of.
To have a given use or purpose; to function for something or to do something.
To usefully take the place as, instead of something else.

Pronunciation

/sɜːv/ /sɝv/ /sɑː(ɹ)v/ en-us-serve.ogg en-au-serve.ogg LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-serve.wav

Word forms

serve serves serving served

Etymology

From Middle English serven, from Old French servir, from Latin serviō (“be a slave; serve”), from Latin servus (“slave; servant”), which perhaps derives from Etruscan (compare Etruscan proper names 𐌔𐌄𐌓𐌅𐌉 (servi), 𐌔𐌄𐌓𐌅𐌄 (serve)), or from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“watch over, protect”).

Synonyms

service serving attend bestand wait on aid attend to await bestead dance attendance do do for serve stay tend wait wait upon

Antonyms

receive govern order rule

Related words

conserve deserve preserve reserve subserve attendant help

Derived words

hold serve misserve multiserve offer versus serve on serve second serve serve and volley single-serve soft serve outserve overserve rail-served re-serve self-serve self-serving servable servage serve cunt servee serve notice serve one's time serve out server servery serve-self serve somebody right serve someone a trick serve someone right serve someone the same sauce serve someone with the same sauce serve the time serve the turn serve time serve two masters serve up serveware serve with the colors serve with the colours service serviced servile serving hatch single-serving site time-serving underserve underserved unserved

Translations

Armenian: ծառայել Bulgarian: подчинен съм Bulgarian: слуга съм Danish: tjene Finnish: avustaa Finnish: palvella Gothic: 𐍃𐌺𐌰𐌻𐌺𐌹𐌽𐍉𐌽 Italian: servire Portuguese: servir Russian: служи́ть Russian: послужи́ть Russian: рабо́тать Russian: порабо́тать Spanish: servir Swedish: tjäna Arabic: خَدَمَ French: servir German: dienen Hebrew: שֵׁרֵת Latin: servio Swahili: kutumika

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.

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