service
Pluralservices
Verbservices, servicing, serviced
Pluralservices
Formsservices, servicing, serviced
- 1The practice of providing assistance to others as a form of economic activity.
Much of the modern economy depends on service rather than manufacturing.
The firm built its reputation on reliable service to small clients.
UsageOften before another noun: service jobs, the service industry. The plural services names particular offerings: banking services.
Similarsupport, assistance
Note
An economist's word, set against goods: hair care sells an activity, not an object.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Economics distinguishes services from goods. stlouisfed.org
- Hair care exemplifies an intangible service rather than a physical good. en.wikipedia.org
- 2Waiting on customers in a restaurant, hotel, or store, or the speed and quality with which staff do it.
A 20 percent tip seemed fair for such attentive service.
Shoppers complained about poor service at the checkout after the store cut its staff.
UsageUsually rated with an adjective: good, slow, attentive service. People complain about the service or tip for good service.
Note
The kind of service names how it reaches the customer, as in table service, counter service and self-service. A bill that says service included or adds a service charge has already charged for service, often in place of all or part of a tip.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- A service charge adds an amount for service to the customer's bill. gov.uk
- An included service charge often replaces an additional tip. visitlondon.com
- 3An act of giving help or assistance to someone.
Volunteering at the shelter is a service the whole town appreciates.
By translating the forms for newly arrived families, she performed a genuine service for the whole community.
UsageMostly in set phrases: do someone a service, be of service to someone, be of no service.
Similarfavor, kindness, help, assistance, aid
Oppositedisservice, harm
Note
Southey's Wat Tyler, written in 1794, plays two senses of the word against each other. The service of the state demands money, yet the speaker asks "of what service is the state?" The first means the state's business; the second means plain usefulness.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Robert Southey wrote Wat Tyler. poemine.com
- Wat Tyler was written in 1794. en.wikisource.org
- A speaker says that the state's service demands money and asks 'of what service is the state?' poemine.com
- 4A formal religious ceremony or rite of worship.
The chapel holds a candlelit service every Christmas Eve.
Mourners gathered for a quiet memorial service by the lake.
UsagePeople attend or go to a service, and a church holds one: a memorial service, the morning service.
- 5A bus, train, or ferry route operated on a regular timetable, or one of the scheduled journeys along it.
The ferry service to the island runs only on weekends in winter.
The 7:15 service to Chicago has been canceled because of a signal problem.
UsageCan mean the whole route (a bus service to the airport) or one trip (the 7:15 service to Chicago).
Similarroute
Note
Transportation companies use it at two scales. A bus service or ferry service is the whole route and timetable, which may be cut, extended or suspended. The 7:15 service is a single scheduled run, a usage heard especially in British station announcements, where Americans would more often say the 7:15 train. Both senses are common on timetables and delay notices.
- 6Provision of temporary access to a resource, such as a hotel room or streaming video, without transfer of its ownership.
A subscription service grants members access to thousands of titles they never own.
With a car-sharing app, you pay for a service, not a car: you drive it for an hour, then leave it for the next person.
Similaraccess
- 7One of the departments into which a company, institution, or other organization is divided.
The press service issued a statement on behalf of the minister.
Complaints are handled by the consumer affairs service.
Similardepartment, office, division, bureau, agency
- 8Active, working use of a machine, vehicle, ship, or system, which it enters when first put to work and leaves when withdrawn.
The aircraft carrier remained in service for nearly fifty years before it was retired.
The new payment system went into service at all branches on Monday.
UsageMostly in phrases: in service, go into service, take something out of service. Out of service also means not working right now.
- 9Work or duty performed as a member of the military.
Years of service in the army shaped his sense of discipline.
He received a medal for distinguished service during the conflict.
UsageOften years of service or distinguished service. Thank you for your service is said to soldiers and veterans.
Similarduty
Note
Military service with its adjective dropped. Context supplies "military", so the bare noun stands alone, most familiarly in "Thank you for your service." Outside a military setting the same words would point back to ordinary help instead.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- The quoted expression occurs with service referring to military service; no particular speaker or historical origin is asserted. nj.gov
- 10The condition of being employed by or subordinate to a person or group.
For decades the butler remained in the service of one family.
Knights pledged lifelong service to their lord.
UsageA common pattern is in the service of a person, family, or organization.
Similaremploy, employment, duty, servitude
Note
The oldest idea in the word: through Old French servise it goes back to Latin servitium and servus, "servant; serf". Subordination is built into it from the start. It usually sits in fixed frames such as in the service of a family or at the service of a lord, as when Lancelot is at the service of King Arthur.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts
- English service derives through Old French servise from Latin servitium and servus. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin servus can mean servant or serf. en.wiktionary.org
- The word's Latin ancestry expresses subordination or servitude. en.wiktionary.org
- Lancelot serves King Arthur in Arthurian legend. en.wikipedia.org
- 11A routine checkup of a vehicle or machine, including any upkeep needed to keep it running properly.
The mechanic found a worn brake pad during the bike's annual service.
Regular services every 10,000 miles kept the old truck running well.
UsageA car is due for or in for a service. The verb works too: get the car serviced.
Similarcheckup
Note
As a countable noun, a service or an annual service, this is especially common in British English. American speakers often keep it uncountable, saying a car is in for service or due for maintenance, while both use the verb service the car. Intervals are usually fixed by distance or time, so a vehicle is serviced every so many miles or months.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
- Vehicle servicing schedules commonly specify distance or elapsed-time intervals. ford.co.nz
- 12To perform maintenance or repairs on a machine, vehicle, or system to keep it working properly.
Technicians service the elevators twice a year.
The company serviced the entire fleet before the winter routes began.
UsageUsually takes a machine as object: service the car, the boiler. With a person as object it can sound sexual.
Similarmaintain, overhaul, repair, fix
Note
When the object is a person, it tips toward the vulgar sense. A 1980 personal ad in Gay Community News seeking a young man to "service nice small country home" seems to play on exactly that double meaning.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- A 1980 personal advertisement in Gay Community News sought a young man to "service nice small country home". en.wiktionary.org
- 13A function that one program or machine provides for the use of another.
The app relies on a cloud service to store user data.
Developers query the mapping service for location coordinates.
Note
Computing hands the idea of service to machines: one program provides and another makes use of it. The noun is usually named by what it supplies, as in a name service for the LAN, and the machine running it is said to provide it. Unlike service as a trade, nothing here need change hands for money.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 1 fact
- A computing service need not involve payment. ripe.net
- 14A commodity such as electricity, water, or sewerage supplied continuously through a physical infrastructure network.
Crews worked through the night to restore power service to the region.
New homes must be connected to municipal water service before sale.
UsageUsually with the supply named first: water service, electric service. It is connected, cut off and restored.
Similarutility
- 15To provide a person, group or area with what it needs, such as care, supplies or information.
The new clinic services the rural villages that once had no doctor.
These rail lines service every town along the river.
UsageSounds more businesslike than serve: a clinic services nearby villages, a firm services its customers.
Similarserve
Note
It shades easily into routine maintenance. A carrier that "services aircraft" from other squadrons, as Drachinifel put it in 2019, both supplies those aircraft and keeps them flying.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Drachinifel used the words “services aircraft” in 2019 about a carrier supporting aircraft from other squadrons. en.wiktionary.org
- The carrier supported other carriers’ aircraft and enabled them to continue flying combat missions. en.wikipedia.org
Less common meanings
- 16The armed forces of a country, considered as a single institution.
After college he entered the service and trained as a pilot.
A career in the service took her to bases on three continents.
UsageUsually with the: join the service, in the service. Without the, it usually means the time or work of serving.
- 17The stroke that puts the ball into play in tennis, volleyball, and other games.
A powerful service can win the point outright.
His second service was so slow that his opponent returned it with ease.
UsageEveryday talk usually says serve; service suits rules and compounds like service fault. A player can also lose her service.
Similarserve
Note
It also names a player's turn to put the ball in play. That is why a tennis player can lose her service as well as strike one.
- 18To make repayments on a debt or pay the interest owed on it.
The government struggles to service its enormous national debt.
Households that service their debts on time protect their credit scores.
UsageUsually with debt, loan or mortgage as object. Debt servicing names the regular payments.
Note
Finance's verb for keeping a debt in good standing: to service it is to pay what falls due. Paying the interest alone counts, so a debt can be serviced for years without shrinking.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Interest-only payments can service a debt for years without reducing the principal, where those are the scheduled payments. moneysmart.gov.au
- 19The formal delivery of a summons, writ, or other legal document to the party named in it.
Service of the writ was completed when the deputy handed it to the defendant.
The lawsuit stalled for weeks because service on the overseas defendant proved difficult.
UsageUsual pattern: service of a document on a person, as in service of the writ, service on the defendant.
Similardelivery
Note
In law the noun pairs with the verb serve: one serves a writ or summons on someone, and the act of delivering it is service, as in proof of service.
Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Service continues an older noun, ultimately from Latin servitium through Old French servise; it was not formed by English lawyers from serve. en.wiktionary.org
- 20A matched set of dishes or utensils used for serving and eating a meal.
He inherited a porcelain tea service from his grandmother.
The antique service included cups, saucers, and a delicate teapot.
UsageCommon combinations are a tea service, a dinner service and a coffee service.
Similarset
- 21Of a male animal, to mate with a female so as to make her pregnant.
Breeders bring in a prize bull to service the herd each spring.
The boar serviced every sow on the farm within a week.
UsageThe object can be one female or the whole group: a bull services the herd. Used sexually of people, it is vulgar.
Note
A farmyard euphemism with the male animal as subject and the female, or the whole herd, as object: a bull services the herd. It lets breeders speak of mating in the flat language of a working routine.
- 22To attack or strike a target, especially in military operations.
Commanders ordered the gun crews to service the bunker with sustained fire.
The strike package serviced three targets before returning to base.
Similarengage, strike, attack, hit, bombard
Note
Military euphemism of the coldest kind: the object is a target, and an attack is framed as a task to complete. Typical phrases are to service a target and target servicing. Servicing a gun would ordinarily mean maintaining it. With target as the object, the verb means firing on something.
- 23To perform a sexual act on someone, often to give them sexual gratification.
The escort was paid well to service wealthy clients.
He crudely asked whether she would service him for money.
Similarpleasure
Note
Vulgar and usually demeaning: it treats a person as something to be attended to, and often implies sex as a transaction. The same verb is innocent when its object is a machine. With a person as its object, though, a sentence like "she services her clients" can be heard this way, whatever the speaker meant.
- 24A European tree related to the rowan, with clusters of white flowers and small fruit eaten when overripe; also this fruit.
The service tree blossoms in spring and bears fruit in fall.
Gardeners who grow a service tree usually wait until its small fruit turns soft and brown before eating it.
Note
Not the "serving" word at all, despite the spelling. The tree's name comes from Latin sorbus, "service tree", through Vulgar Latin to Old English syrfe. In Middle English it was serves, the plural of serve ("sorb apple"), that became the name. Properly it means the tree that bears sorb fruit, and sorb is its close English relative.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts
- The tree name is unrelated to the verb serve. en.wikipedia.org
- The name derives from Latin sorbus through Vulgar Latin and Old English syrfe. en.wiktionary.org
- Middle English serves was the plural of serve, meaning sorb apple, and became the modern name. en.wiktionary.org
- The name properly denotes the tree bearing sorb fruit. en.wiktionary.org
- Sorb is etymologically related to the tree name service. en.wiktionary.org
- 25The spun yarn, small lines, and other material wound around a rope to protect it.
Note
A sailor's mass noun tied to the verb serve, which in rigging means to bind a rope with spun yarn or small line. Service is the binding material itself. It is laid on and worn away rather than counted: tight service over a splice, service rotted by salt.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- In rigging, serve means to bind a rope with spun yarn or similar small cordage. gutenberg.org
- Service denotes the material used to bind the rope. en.wiktionary.org
- The protective binding is applied to the rope and becomes worn. home.nps.gov
- 26An expression of respect and a formal acknowledgment of the duty one owes to another.
Pray, do my service to his majesty.
1613, William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher]Note
An obsolete courtesy that is easy to misread today. When Shakespeare and Fletcher, writing in 1613, have a speaker say "Pray, do my service to his majesty," the line means "give the king my respects," not "help him." Modern "do someone a service" is a useful act. Keep this sense for period writing.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
- Shakespeare and Fletcher wrote the quoted play, Henry VIII, in 1613. This explicitly dates composition; first publication was in 1623. folgerpedia.folger.edu
- The quoted words occur in Henry VIII, Act III, scene i, spoken by Queen Katherine. folger.edu
- The quotation uses the obsolete sense expressing respect and acknowledging duty, supporting the paraphrase 'give the king my respects.' en.wiktionary.org
- 27A musical setting of the fixed texts of a church service, such as the canticles or the Communion, especially in Anglican worship.
- 28A shared taxi carrying unrelated passengers who each pay part of the fare, often running a fixed route between cities.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origins
This word came through Middle English and Old French from Latin servitium, based on servus ("servant, serf, slave"), and ultimately from a Proto-Indo-European form *ser-wo-s ("guardian"), possibly from *ser- ("watch over, protect"). It displaced the native Old English word þeġnung.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Service derives through Middle English and Old French from Latin servitium. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin servitium is based on servus. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin servus means servant, serf or slave. en.wiktionary.org
- Servus ultimately derives from Proto-Indo-European *ser-wo-s, meaning guardian, possibly from *ser-, meaning watch over or protect. en.wiktionary.org
- Service displaced the native Old English word þeġnung. en.wiktionary.org
From Middle English serves, plural of serve ('sorb apple'), from Old English syrfe, from Vulgar Latin *sorbea and Latin sorbus ('service tree'). The spelling was later bent toward the unrelated word service.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- The tree word service derives from Middle English serves, the plural of serve, meaning sorb apple. en.wiktionary.org
- Its ancestry runs through Old English syrfe and reconstructed Vulgar Latin *sorbea to Latin sorbus, meaning service tree. en.wiktionary.org
- The unrelated word service influenced the tree word's spelling. en.wiktionary.org