: permitting or offering self-service
self-serve gas
a self-serve farm stand
These hotels are surprisingly good—with fresh beds, flat-panel TVs, self-serve breakfast buffets and free wireless broadband.Rich Kalgaard

Examples of self-serve in a Sentence

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.
The crowd here is eclectic: young families making the most of the kid-friendly amenities, groups of friends in town for a long ski weekend, and multi-generational crowds fueling up at the self-serve breakfast. Maddy Sims, Condé Nast Traveler, 14 Feb. 2026 The hall has multiple self-serve Caffe Vergnano 1882 coffee bars and chefs behind six stations, catering to all types of diets: vegan, gluten-free and dairy-free. Brittany Ghiroli, New York Times, 7 Feb. 2026 McTernan Manor Built in 1888, this historic home turned boutique hotel has antique furnishings and a self-serve continental breakfast. Trudy Haywood Saunders, Travel + Leisure, 27 Jan. 2026 Trying to feed more people faster, Bob put out self-serve condiments and handed out plain dogs for folks to fix up themselves. Jennifer Stewart Kornegay, Southern Living, 30 Aug. 2025 See All Example Sentences for self-serve

Word History

First Known Use

1910, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of self-serve was in 1910

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Cite this Entry

“Self-serve.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/self-serve. Accessed 22 Feb. 2026.

Kids Definition

self-serve

adjective
ˈself-ˈsərv
: permitting self-service
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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