serve

1 of 2

verb

served; serving

intransitive verb

1
a
: to be a servant
b
: to do military or naval service
2
: to assist a celebrant as server at mass
3
a
: to be of use
in a day when few people could write, seals served as signaturesElizabeth W. King
b
: to be favorable, opportune, or convenient
c
: to be worthy of reliance or trust
if memory serves
d
: to hold an office : discharge a duty or function
serve on a jury
4
: to prove adequate or satisfactory : suffice
it will serve for this task
5
: to help persons to food: such as
a
: to wait at table
b
: to set out portions of food or drink
6
: to wait on customers
7
: to put the ball or shuttlecock in play in various games (such as tennis, volleyball, or badminton)

transitive verb

1
a
: to be a servant to : attend
b
: to give the service and respect due to (a superior)
c
: to comply with the commands or demands of : gratify
d
: to give military or naval service to
e
: to perform the duties of (an office or post)
2
: to act as server at (mass)
3
archaic : to pay a lover's or suitor's court to (a lady)
that gentle lady, whom I love and serveEdmund Spenser
4
a
: to work through (a term of service)
b
: to put in (a term of imprisonment)
5
a
: to wait on at table
b
: to bring (food) to a diner
c
: present, provide
usually used with up
the novel served up many laughs
6
a
: to furnish or supply with something needed or desired
b
: to wait on (a customer) in a store
c
: to furnish professional service to
7
a
: to answer the needs of
b
: to be enough for : suffice
c
: to contribute or conduce to : promote
8
: to treat or act toward in a specified way
he served me ill
9
a
: to bring to notice, deliver, or execute as required by law
b
: to make legal service upon (a person named in a process)
10
of a male animal : to copulate with
11
: to wind yarn or wire tightly around (a rope or stay) for protection
12
: to provide services that benefit or help
13
: 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
These examples are automatically compiled from online sources to illustrate current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Verb
Kristin Canning is a freelance journalist with over a decade of experience, serving as the former features director at Women's Health Magazine, and holding prior editor positions at Health, SELF, and Men's Health. Condé Nast, WIRED, 1 Nov. 2024 September serves as a reminder to you that life is cyclical—what goes up must come down, and no hardship lasts forever. Meghan Rose, Glamour, 1 Nov. 2024
Noun
According to Professor Pickleball’s calculations, the fastest serve that will just clear the net and not fly past the opposite baseline leaves the paddle at 54 miles per hour. Mark Fischetti, Scientific American, 1 Oct. 2024 In a rural sky dense with stars, the brightest serve as helpful signposts to orient yourself. Carlyn Kranking, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 Sep. 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

Dictionary Entries Near serve

Cite this Entry

“Serve.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/serve. Accessed 9 Nov. 2024.

Kids Definition

serve

1 of 2 verb
served; serving
1
a
: to be a servant
b
: to give the service and respect due
c
: to work through or perform a term of service
served five years in the marines
d
: to be in prison for or during
served a 10-year sentence
2
a
: to act officially as a clergyman or priest
serve mass
b
: to assist as server at mass
3
a
: to be of use : answer a purpose
the tree serves as shelter
b
: to be favorable or convenient
when the time serves
c
: to hold an office : perform a duty
serve on a jury
4
: to be enough for
a pie that will serve eight people
5
a
: to help persons to food (as at a table or counter)
b
: to set out portions of food or drink
6
a
: to furnish or supply with something needed or desired
b
: to wait on customers
7
: to treat or act toward in a certain way
they served me ill
8
: to bring to notice, deliver, or carry out as required by law
serve a summons
9
: 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
1
: to deliver, publish, or execute (notice or process) as required by law
no notice of any such request was ever served on the husbandNational Law Journal
2
: 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 defectGene Mustain
3
: to put in (a term of imprisonment)
has served five years of her sentence

More from Merriam-Webster on serve

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