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Glite Dictionary
to disserve

to disserve

1 8.8
To cause harm that makes someone worse off
  • verb
  • /dɪsˈsɜrv/
translation icon : perjudicar
  • The new policy disserves low-income families by cutting essential services.

Examples

  • As for the NRA, they do a pretty good job of disserving themselves!

    Blog text (29)

  • This is an unhealthy, parasitic relationship which disserves both groups.

    Blog text (17)

  • But I I would be disserving my audience if I didn't ask you to tell them where they can find more of you.

  • Humiliation and condescension disserve writers and critics alike.

    Academic text (2009)

  • In other words, the South was disproportionately supporting the federal government and yet was being disserved by it with oppressive policies.

    Blog text (33)

  • "Science fiction has disserved us," wrote Philip Agre presciently.

    Academic text (2010)

  • Nevertheless, long-term societal needs are being disserved.

    Blog text (23)

  • Just as leaving victims out of the release process disserves victims of past crimes, lack of follow-up with released convicts creates new dangers.

    Academic text (2003)

  • Chronically underserved students who are disserved by the educational system are routinely targeted for intervention programming.

    Academic text (2013)

  • The safest course for lawyers is to take a relatively passive role: to assume that whichever manager consults them is their "client" (even if that manager seems to be proposing action that might disserve the actual client, the corporate entity) to present the manager with options and estimates of legal risk likely to attach to each, and to let the manager decide (while adding a covering memo to the file noting that they have advised on legal risk).

    Academic text (2017)

Synonyms

to harm
vsto disserve
738 1.0

To cause a bad effect on people or things

also includes putting someone at a disadvantage, not only direct injury
to disadvantage
vsto disserve
18 4.7

To make someone or something less able to succeed than others

also includes actively causing harm or a harmful outcome
to disfavor
vsto disserve
1 6.9

To put someone or something at a disadvantage

also causes direct harm or other lasting injury

Antonyms

help
∞ 1.0

An act that makes something easier for someone

to serve
∞ 1.8

To be used for a specific purpose or to help achieve something

How Harmful

to destroy
∞ 1.0
to undermine
270 6.8
to damage
885 1.4
to disserve
1 8.8
to impair
61 5.1

Surface Forms

disserve infinitive
disserved past
disserved past participle
disserving present participle
disserves third person singular

Morphology

disserve = serve (semi-transparent) = dis + serve

The prefix 'dis-' typically indicates negation or reversal, but the specific meaning of 'disserve' as 'to harm' is not fully transparent.

Etymology

The word disserve comes from two parts: dis- meaning 'not' or 'opposite' and serve meaning 'to help', so it literally means to do the opposite of helping — to harm or make things harder for someone.