serve

SaySURV/sɝv/UK/sɜːv/

Verbserves, serving, served

Noun pluralserves

23 meanings of serve

Practice

1
fill a roleverbintransitivefactive
To do the duties of a job, office, or public role, such as holding office or sitting on a jury.
She served as mayor for two terms before retiring.
Many volunteers serve without any pay.
UsageThe role usually comes after as or on: serve as mayor, serve on a jury or a committee.
Note
No object is needed here, because the act of service is the whole meaning. Milton's "They also serve who only stand and wait" (1673) turns on exactly that, granting the dignity of service to patience itself.
2
give foodverbtransitive
To give food or drink to someone, setting it on the table or bringing it to them at a meal.
The host served roasted lamb to her guests.
Restaurants serve their signature dishes on heated plates.
UsageSay serve soup to the guests or serve the guests soup; a dish is served with its sides.
3
verbtransitive
To be useful to someone or something; to meet a need.
A modest budget can serve a small team for a whole year.
The old shed has served the family well for decades.
UsageOften with well: the shed has served them well.
Similarsustain, support, suit, satisfy, benefit
Oppositefail
4
verbintransitive
To be used as or for something, often in place of the usual thing.
The old lighthouse now serves as a museum.
When the power goes out, a few candles and an old flashlight will have to serve as our only light.
UsageServe as plus a noun names the role; serve to plus a verb names the effect: it served to remind people.
5
supply an areaverbtransitive
To supply an area or a community with goods, a service, or transportation.
The new rail line will serve the fast-growing suburbs north of the city.
A single hospital serves the entire county and its forty thousand residents.
UsageCommon in the passive: a town well served by buses, an area poorly served by shops.
Similarsupply
Note
The language of transport and public services: the subject is a rail line, an airport, a hospital or a utility, and the object is the place or population it reaches. Underserved, for a community without enough services, comes from this sense.
6
armed forcesverbintransitive
To be in military service, as a member of the armed forces.
She served in the army for eight years.
Many young people choose to serve during wartime.
UsageUsually serve in the army, navy or air force; you can also serve overseas.
7
wait onverbtransitive
To wait on a customer in a store, bar, or restaurant, taking the order or selling the person what they ask for.
It took twenty minutes for anyone to serve us at the counter.
The bartender ignored us and served the couple who had just walked in.
UsageThe customer is the object, not the goods: serve the next customer, are you being served?
Similarhelp
Note
A shop assistant's question "Are you being served?" belongs here, and so does refusing to serve someone, which in a bar means declining to sell them a drink.
8
prison timeverbtransitive
To spend a set length of time in prison, as required by a sentence.
He served a five-year sentence for fraud.
They will serve the remainder of their terms at a lower-security facility.
UsageSet phrases: serve a sentence, serve time, serve five years.
Similardo, complete, spend
9
verbtransitive
To be a servant to someone; to work for or be employed by them.
For decades she served the same noble household.
Loyal staff serve the estate from one generation to the next.
Note
Behind every use of serve stands a slave. Here that origin is closest to the surface. Bob Dylan's "Gotta Serve Somebody" (1979) leans on it, and Addison's The Drummer (1716) has a gardener who will serve a dead master only for double wages.
10
worshipverbtransitive
To worship and obey a god, or to minister to one as a priest or other official attendant.
For decades she served Athena as her dedicated priestess.
Vestal priestesses serve the goddess and tend her sacred flame.
Similarworship
11
portionnounAustraliacountable
A portion of food or drink suitable for one person.
The recipe makes four generous serves.
He asked for an extra serve of vegetables with his meal.
UsageUsually a serve of something: a serve of vegetables. Elsewhere serving is the usual word.
Similarportion, helping
Note
It sits naturally in diet advice and menus, as in a small serve of lean protein or a serve of cheese börek. It can also measure drink precisely: the House of Commons Health Committee's 2010 report on alcohol describes a 50ml serve of Smirnoff.

Less common meanings

12
start the pointverbtransitive or intransitive
To begin a point by sending the first ball or shuttlecock over the net, as in tennis, volleyball, or badminton.
Players serve from behind the baseline in tennis.
She served an ace to clinch the match.
Note
Rob Antoun's Women's Tennis Tactics (2007) ties serving effectively to a more aggressive game with shorter rallies. That is a reminder that the stroke the noun names can be an attacking shot, not only a way to begin.
13
nouncountable
The stroke that puts the ball or shuttlecock into play to begin a point.
His powerful serve overwhelmed the opponent.
The match turned on a series of well-placed serves.
UsagePlayers take turns: whose serve is it? Common pairs are first serve and power serve.
Similarservice
Note
On court it is something owned and taken in turns: players ask "Whose serve is it?", and the one delivering it is the server, whose direction an opponent tries to read. Steve Boga's Badminton (1996) shows how rule-bound it is, sending the first serve diagonally across the court.
14
feed (number)verbtransitive
Of a dish or recipe, to provide enough food for a given number of people.
Double the ingredients if you want the soup to serve twelve.
The casserole serves six as a main course or eight as a side dish.
UsageThe food is the subject and a number follows: the cake serves eight; recipes head it Serves 4.
Similarfeed
15
legal papersverbtransitive
To officially deliver a summons, writ, or other legal document, in the way the law requires.
A process server served the defendant at his home.
Lawyers must serve the summons within a set time frame.
UsageTwo patterns: serve papers on someone, or serve someone with papers.
Note
Law has two ways of saying this. Serve a document on someone puts the paper first: a document served on the tenant, or a search warrant served on a residence. Serve someone with a document reverses the order, as in serve a witness with a subpoena. The passive can keep both, as when Prince Andrew was said to be avoiding being served court papers. Either way, service is a formal act with legal consequences, not merely handing something over.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
Prince Andrew was accused of trying to avoid service of court papers. en.wikipedia.org
Service is a formal legal act with consequences for court proceedings. saclaw.org
16
sell drugsverbslangtransitive or intransitive
To sell or supply illegal drugs, especially crack cocaine, to someone; to deal.
Undercover officers watched him serve crack to buyers on the corner.
Undercover officers watched the young men serve crack users from a doorway, handing over small rocks for crumpled bills.
Note
The object can be the customer, as in serving crack fiends, or the drug itself: Seth Ferranti's The Supreme Team describes crews that streamlined their operation "to serve crack only." Because ordinary serve is so innocent, context is what marks the slang.
17
look amazingverbslangtransitive or intransitive
To present a striking, confident look, showing off a style or evoking someone through one's appearance.
Those models really serve every time they hit the runway.
On the red carpet, she likes to serve old Hollywood glamour, with satin gloves, red lips, and perfectly pinned curls.
UsageOften with an object: serve a look, serve glamour; a person can also just serve.
Note
John Boone, writing on Black Panther in 2017, has Angela Bassett "serving for the gods" in regal headdresses.
18
nounslangcountable
A striking, attention-commanding presentation, especially of one's personal appearance.
Each of her runway looks this season has been a serve.
When she walked into the party in a floor-length red cape, everyone agreed the outfit was a total serve.
UsagePraise for a look, often a total serve or such a serve; it does not mean a portion here.
Similarshowstopper
Note
Born in gay slang and African-American Vernacular, this noun grew out of the verb of striking appearance. It is countable and evaluative: an eyeliner can be such a serve, and Chris Murphy's 2021 Real Housewives recap scolds that a private jet "is not the serve you think it is."
19
operate weaponverbtransitive
To work or operate a weapon, especially an artillery piece.
The crew served the field gun under heavy fire.
Trained men serve the battery's guns in rotating shifts.
Similarman, operate, work
Note
Artillery gave this sense its home: crews serve their guns, and the verb covers the whole work of a weapon in action, from loading through firing. Horace Greeley's The American Conflict (1864) records an officer killed "while serving his gun in the face of the foe." The object is the gun itself, never the target.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
The weapon-operation sense has an established artillery context. en.wiktionary.org
Horace Greeley's The American Conflict first appeared in 1864. en.wikipedia.org
Greeley's book records an officer's death with the quoted wording. en.wiktionary.org
20
mateverbtransitive
Of a male animal, to copulate with a female; to cover.
The ram served the ewes over a two-week period.
A single prize bull can serve dozens of cows in a season.
UsageMostly in farming talk, and often passive: a cow is served by a bull.
Similarcover, mount, service
21
treatverbarchaictransitive
To treat someone in a specified manner.
I mock them all who have served me ill of late and chiefly this cheat of Judah, whose temple we have plundered and whose golden vessels are my wash-pots.
1924, H. Rider Haggard, Belshazzar
Herein thou haſt done good ſeruice to thy country: VVere all inhumaine ſlaues ſo ſerued as he, England would be ciuill, and from all ſuch dealings free.
1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw
UsageToday mainly in the fixed phrase it serves you right, meaning you deserved it.
Note
An older use in which the manner matters more than the act. Haggard's Belshazzar (1930) speaks of those who "have served me ill," and The Life and Death of Iacke Straw (1593) wishes all such slaves "so served as he."
22
court a loververbarchaictransitive
To court someone; to be a person's suitor or lover.
That gentle Lady, whom I loue and serue.
1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene
Note
This sense imagines love as service, with the suitor as the lady's servant. Spenser writes of "that gentle Lady, whom I loue and serue" in The Faerie Queene (1590), pairing the two verbs as near equals. It reflects the courtly tradition in which a man pledged devoted service to the woman he sought.
23
verb
To wind spun yarn or similar tightly around a rope or cable to protect it from chafing or from the weather.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of serve apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

Latin servus ("slave; servant"), which may come from Etruscan or from Proto-Indo-European *ser- ("watch over, protect"), gave serviō ("be a slave; serve"); that verb became Old French servir and then Middle English serven.