🔧 To be useful 🪖 To work for 🍽️ To give food 🚔 To be in prison 📄 To deliver papers 🎾 To start play 🎾 A starting shot 🐎 To mate (animal)

to serve

∞ 1.7

To work for someone or act in an official role, often in the military

verb
/sɜrv/

: servir

The nominees to the 40-member Board of Governors will serve three-year terms starting in August.
serve as president
serve as editor
serve on a committee

Every single one of us has served multiple roles.

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Examples

Will you serve my brother as you served his father?

Gladiator (2000)
I am proud to serve my country as a member of the armed forces.
Let me know how I can serve you best today.

Tom Ferry
It's a pleasure to serve under your chair today.
Always remember to serve others on your way up,

Evan Carmichael
It's been an honor serving with you too.

AlieNation (2022)
How can we inspire more people to serve those who serve others?

Simon Sinek
Our priority is protecting the men and women who serve this country.

Land of Bad (2024)
They are drafted to serve just as men are in the army.

Hitler's Children (1943)
Prior to his assignment as commandant, Adm. Allen served as Coast Guard chief of staff.

Academic text (2011)

Synonyms

to act as

vsto serve

199 2.6

Serve in the role of a person or thing

emphasizes working for others holding positions or military duty

to wait on

vsto serve

20 3.4

To serve people at a table by bringing food or drinks

is more general and includes holding positions or other duties

to attend

vsto serve

Formal

13 7.2

To serve or help someone, often as part of a job

is broader covering jobs formal positions military duty or devotion

Antonyms

to abandon

773 3.1

Leave someone or something behind permanently and without care

to desert

219 4.2

To leave people or a place when you are needed

Idioms

to serve (someone) right

Informal

22 7.3

A punishment that someone deserves because of their own wrong actions

to serve two masters

4 8.2

To try to please two people or groups who want different things and fail to please either

to serve someone right

Informal

3 6.6

To get a bad result you deserve because of what you did

to serve the turn

1 7.9

To be good enough for a purpose for a short time

to serve in good stead

7.0

To be useful to someone in the future

Phrasal Verbs

to serve time

35 6.7

To spend time in prison as punishment for a crime

to serve up

34 1.4

To give food or drink to people

to serve alcohol

7 3.0

Provide alcohol to customers or guests

to serve notice

Formal

5 6.5

To give someone an official written letter telling them about a change or end of an agreement

to serve well

3 3.5

Be useful to someone when they need it

to serve in the army

3 3.2

To be a member of a country's army for work or because the law makes you

to serve as a backdrop

1 4.6

To form a background that makes the main subject look better

to serve as a conduit

1 7.5

Act as a way to pass information between groups

to drop one's serve

Jargon

6.9

Lose a game in tennis when you are the player who starts the point

to serve as an escort

Formal

4.1

To go with a person like an ambassador to protect or show respect

Compounds

break of serve

Jargon

5.1

A game one player wins while the opponent is serving

first-come-first-serve

3.9

People get things in the order they arrive, with no reservations

How Committed

to sacrifice

394 3.4

to devote

465 3.7

to commit

706 3.4

to serve

∞ 1.7

to work

∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

serve infinitive

served past

served past participle

serving present participle

serves third person singular

Etymology

The word serve comes from the old Latin words servus meaning 'slave' or 'servant' and servire meaning 'to serve'. To serve someone is to work for them or do a duty, which is why we say people 'serve' in jobs, roles, or the army.