serve

serve: serve serve [sɜːv ǁ sɜːrv] verb

1. [transitive] COMMERCE to supply customers with a particular product or service or with something they need:

• The firm plans to open a London office to serve clients with investments and businesses in Europe.

• JAL Group airlines serve 208 airports in 35 countries and territories.

2. [intransitive, transitive] COMMERCE to give the customers in a shop, restaurant etc the things they want to buy:

• Free wine will be served on flights.

3. [intransitive, transitive] to spend a period of time doing a particular job, often an important one that helps the organization:

• If elected, she will serve a four-year term.

• He had to serve an apprenticeship (= a period of training ) with an accounting firm.

serve as

• He has proved to be valuable in several of the companies he has served as a board member.

4. serve a summons/writ/notice etc LAW to officially send or give someone a written order to appear in a court of law:

serve a summons/writ/notice etc on

• The manufacturing company served a writ on him after he failed to register the patent.

* * *

serve UK US /sɜːv/ verb

► [T] to provide people or a place with products or services or something that is needed: »serve customers/clients
»There is a new 24-hour bus that serves the airport.

► [I or T] to help achieve something or to be useful as something: serve to do sth »The new procedures serve to stop economic growth.
»The phone application needs to serve a purpose.

► [T] COMMERCE in a shop, restaurant, or hotel, to deal with a customer by taking their order, showing or selling them goods, etc.: »She spends all day on the shop floor serving customers.
»Are you being served?

► [I or T] to provide food or drinks: »He was served dinner in his room.
»Breakfast is served between 7 and 9.

► [I or T] to spend time doing a job, training for a job, or having a responsibility: serve as sth »He became a city commissioner and went on to serve as mayor.
»After serving an apprenticeship with his father, he received a scholarship to study in Italy.

► [T] LAW to give a legal document to someone, demanding that they go to a court of law or that they obey an order: »The pension trustees served a writ last Friday in New York.
serve sb with sth »She was served with a summons to court.

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Synonyms:

Work for, labor for, be under the orders of, be subservient to, obey, subserve, Be a servant, be a slave, be in bondage, be in subjection / Comply with, yield to, submit to / Aid, assist, help, succor, attend, oblige, wait on, minister to, Obey, be dutiful, perform duty / Promote, advance, forward, benefit, contribute to, be of use to, conduce to, assist, besufficient for, Answer, do, be sufficient, be of use / Satisfy, content, be sufficient for, Suit, be convenient, be suitable / Treat, behave toward, requite, act toward, Attend, wait on / Manage, manipulate, handle, work, Act, discharge the requirements of, officiate, minister / Wait on, attend, supply (with food) / Place, arrange, bring forward, deal, distribute / Be in lieu of, answer, do duty for

Look at other dictionaries:

Serve — Serve, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Served}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Serving}.] [OE. serven, servien, OF. & F. servir, fr. L. servire; akin to servus a servant or slave, servare to protect, preserve, observe; cf. Zend har to protect, haurva protecting. Cf.… … The Collaborative International Dictionary of English
serve — → serf ● serf, serve adjectif (latin servus, esclave) Relatif à l état des serfs : Des hommes de condition serve. Littéraire. Qui fait preuve d une soumission complète à l égard d autrui. ● serf, serve (homonymes) adjectif (latin servus, esclave) … Encyclopédie Universelle
serve — [sʉrv] vt. served, serving [ME serven < OFr servir < L servire, to serve < servus, servant, slave: see SERF] 1. to work for as a servant 2. a) to do services or duties for; give service to; aid; assist; help b) to give obedience and… … English World dictionary
serve — vt served, serv·ing 1: to deliver, publish, or execute (notice or process) as required by law no notice of any such request was ever served on the husband National Law Journal 2: to make legal service upon (the person named in a process): inform… … Law dictionary
serve — late 12c., to render habitual obedience to, from O.Fr. servir to serve, from L. servire to serve, originally be a slave, related to servus slave, perhaps from an Etruscan word (Cf. Etruscan proper names Servi, Serve). Meaning to attend to (a… … Etymology dictionary
Serve — Serve, v. i. 1. To be a servant or a slave; to be employed in labor or other business for another; to be in subjection or bondage; to render menial service. [1913 Webster] The Lord shall give thee rest . . . from the hard bondage wherein thou… … The Collaborative International Dictionary of English
serve — ► VERB 1) perform duties or services for. 2) be employed as a member of the armed forces. 3) spend (a period) in office, in an apprenticeship, or in prison. 4) present food or drink to. 5) attend to (a customer in a shop). 6) be of use in… … English terms dictionary
serve — [v1] aid, help; supply arrange, assist, attend to, be of assistance, be of use, care for, deal, deliver, dish up*, distribute, do for, give, handle, hit, minister to, nurse, oblige, play, present, provide, provision, set out, succor, wait on,… … New thesaurus
Serve — may refer to: * Serve (tennis) * Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment * Providing a non material good, as in the work of a servant * Supplying customers with food and drink, as in the work of a food server * Delivering a legal or… … Wikipedia
serve up — (something) to offer something. The TV miniseries will be serving up five hour long programs. Hitchcock served up a pitch that Perez hit over the fence for a home run. Filmgoers demand realism, and Lee serves it up without flash or tricks in his… … New idioms dictionary

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