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 fulfilling (a purpose). 7 treat in a specified way. 8 (of food or drink) be enough for. 9 Law formally deliver (a summons or writ) to the person to whom it is addressed. (in tennis and other racket sports) hit the ball or shuttlecock to begin play for each point of a game. (of a male breeding animal) copulate with (a female).

  • noun 1 an act of serving in tennis, badminton, etc. 2 Austral. informal a reprimand.

  — PHRASES serve someone right be someone’s deserved punishment or misfortune. serve one’s (or its) turn be useful.

  — ORIGIN Latin servire, from servus ‘slave’.

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