🔧 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

14 8.6

To mate with a female animal to produce young

verb
/sɜrv/

Specialized

: cubrir

AET provides that the superordinate goal of procreation can be served by affectionate communication in two distinct ways.

Examples

You serve, as a man's seed serves the woman who chooses him.

Fiction book (1990)
Here the sire may serve the dam

The Phantom of the Opera (2004)
And it mainly served procreation.

Sextet (2007)
In the breeding program, the chosen stallion will serve the mare to produce strong offspring.
Farmers often use bulls to serve their cows during the mating season for better livestock quality.
The experienced rooster was selected to serve the hens, ensuring the future of the flock.

Synonyms

to mount

vsto serve

NSFW

20 8.8

To climb onto another animal to mate with it

focuses on mating for breeding rather than the physical mounting action

to service

vsto serve

NSFW

8 9.9

To mate with a female for breeding

is the same meaning but is an alternative term form

to cover

vsto serve

NSFW

5 9.9

To mate with a female animal

is used broadly for mating for breeding, not only with specific species

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

Surface Forms

serve infinitive

served past

served past participle

serving present participle

serves third person singular

Etymology

A helpful way to remember the use of serve for animals mating is to think of the old root serv- meaning 'to do duty' or 'serve'. So when a male animal 'serves' a female it is doing its breeding 'duty' for the owner or breeder.