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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

serve.

To provide a service (or, by extension, a product, especially food or drink).

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/sɜːv/UK/sɝv/US/sɑː(ɹ)v/dialectal, obsolete
  1. To provide a service (or, by extension, a product, especially food or drink). To be a formal servant for (a god or deity); to worship in an official capacity.

    personal · transitive
  2. To provide a service (or, by extension, a product, especially food or drink). To be a servant for; to work for, to be employed by.

    personal · transitive
  3. To provide a service (or, by extension, a product, especially food or drink). To wait upon (someone) at table; to set food and drink in front of, to help (someone) to food, meals etc.

    personal · transitive
  4. To provide a service (or, by extension, a product, especially food or drink). To render service by being a servant, worker, employee, or officeholder; to hold those roles and perform their duties.

    factive · intransitive · personal
  5. To provide a service (or, by extension, a product, especially food or drink). To set down (food or drink) on the table to be eaten; to bring (food, drink) to a person.

    personal · transitive
  6. To treat (someone) in a given manner.

    archaic · transitive
  7. To be suitor to; to be the lover of.

    archaic · transitive
  8. To be effective. To be useful to; to meet the needs of.

    transitive
  9. To be effective. To have a given use or purpose; to function for something or to do something.

    intransitive
  10. To be effective. To usefully take the place as, instead of something else.

    intransitive
  11. To deliver a document in such a way that the recipient can be legally considered to be informed of it. To officially deliver (a legal notice, summons etc.).

    transitive
    a document served on the tenant
  12. To deliver a document in such a way that the recipient can be legally considered to be informed of it. To make legal service upon (a person named in a writ, summons, etc.)

    transitive
    to serve a witness with a subpoena
  13. To lead off with the first delivery over the net in tennis, volleyball, ping pong, badminton etc.

    intransitive · transitive
  14. To copulate with (of male animals); to cover.

    transitive
  15. To be in military service.

    intransitive
  16. To work, to operate (a weapon).

    transitive
  17. To work through (a given period of time in prison, a sentence).

    transitive
  18. To wind spun yarn etc. tightly around (a rope or cable, etc.) so as to protect it from chafing or from the weather.

  19. To perform (a public obligation).

    transitive
    I've received a summons for jury duty. It says I serve one day or one trial.
    She served the office of mayor five years ago.
  20. To provide crack cocaine (to), usually by selling, dealing, or distributing.

    ambitransitive · slang
  21. To present an attractive personal appearance. To present an attractive personal appearance.

    intransitive
  22. To present an attractive personal appearance. To attractively display (something, especially a body part) as part of one's personal appearance.

    transitive
  23. To present an attractive personal appearance. To evoke (something, especially a person) with one's personal appearance.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English serven, from Old French servir, from Latin serviō (“be a slave; serve”), from Latin servus (“slave; servant”), which perhaps derives from Etruscan (compare Etruscan proper names 𐌔𐌄𐌓𐌅𐌉 (servi), 𐌔𐌄𐌓𐌅𐌄 (serve)), or from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“watch over, protect”).

noun/sɜːv/UK/sɝv/US/sɑː(ɹ)v/dialectal, obsolete
  1. An act of putting the ball or shuttlecock in play in various games.

    Whose serve is it?
  2. A portion of food or drink, a serving.

    Australia
  3. An impressive presentation (especially of a person's appearance).

    That white eyeliner is such a serve.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English serven, from Old French servir, from Latin serviō (“be a slave; serve”), from Latin servus (“slave; servant”), which perhaps derives from Etruscan (compare Etruscan proper names 𐌔𐌄𐌓𐌅𐌉 (servi), 𐌔𐌄𐌓𐌅𐌄 (serve)), or from Proto-Indo-European *ser- (“watch over, protect”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.