serve
Pronunciation: /sɜːv/
The English word “serve” has 20 meanings listed here.
verb
- To be a formal servant for (a god or deity); to worship in an official capacity.
- To be a servant for; to work for, to be employed by.
- To wait upon (someone) at table; to set food and drink in front of, to help (someone) to food, meals etc.
- To render service by being a servant, worker, employee, or officeholder; to hold those roles and perform their duties.
- To set down (food or drink) on the table to be eaten; to bring (food, drink) to a person.
- To treat (someone) in a given manner.
- To be suitor to; to be the lover of.
- To be useful to; to meet the needs of.
- To have a given use or purpose; to function for something or to do something.
- To usefully take the place as, instead of something else.
- To officially deliver (a legal notice, summons etc.).
- To make legal service upon (a person named in a writ, summons, etc.)
- To lead off with the first delivery over the net in tennis, volleyball, ping pong, badminton etc.
- To copulate with (of male animals); to cover.
- To be in military service.
- To work, to operate (a weapon).
- To work through (a given period of time in prison, a sentence).
- To wind spun yarn etc. tightly around (a rope or cable, etc.) so as to protect it from chafing or from the weather.
- To perform (a public obligation).
- To provide crack cocaine (to), usually by selling, dealing, or distributing.
Etymology
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 are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.