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

to serve

20 2.2

To hit the ball to start play in a game like tennis

verb
/sɜrv/

: sacar

The WTA said you know you could serve and use both feet.
serve a volleyball
serving accuracy

Boris Becker, if you know when he's serving, his tongue sticks out a little bit.

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Examples

I keep my windbreaker on, but play well, serve hard, and hit good backhands.

Fiction book (1992)
So, what happens if you serve it on the 153rd day?

The Menu (2022)
And this student threw up the ball and served a beautiful serve after watching him a few times.
And so I go back to the match and I serve a very fast serve and it's an ace.
Either way, he was always at the school throwing strikes or serving aces.

Fiction book (1990)
You serve, I volley.

The Bad Guys (2022)
Open, Federer serving to Andre Agassi early in the fourth set.

Academic text (2011)
Forrest Jr. serves the ball, causing Forrest to dive and miss it.

Fiction book (1994)
Skills that were tested included serving in badminton, sprinting in track, the lay-up in basketball, and dribbling in soccer.

Academic text (2003)
In tennis, you must serve the ball diagonally into the opponent's court to start the game.

Idioms

to serve (someone) right

Informal

35 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 the turn

1 7.9

To be good enough for a purpose for a short time

to serve in good stead

1 7.0

To be useful to someone in the future

to serve someone right

Informal

1 6.6

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

Phrasal Verbs

to serve well

112 3.5

Be useful to someone when they need it

to serve time

68 6.7

To spend time in prison as punishment for a crime

to serve up

63 1.4

To give food or drink to people

to serve in the army

21 3.2

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

to serve alcohol

10 3.0

Provide alcohol to customers or guests

to serve notice

Formal

10 6.5

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

to serve as a conduit

1 7.5

Act as a way to pass information between groups

to serve as a backdrop

1 4.6

To form a background that makes the main subject look better

to drop one's serve

Jargon

1 6.9

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

to serve as an escort

Formal

1 4.1

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

Compounds

first-come-first-serve

1 3.9

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

break of serve

Jargon

1 5.1

A game one player wins while the opponent is serving

How Fast

to serve

20 2.2

to slice

Jargon

1 6.9

lob

7 4.4

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 root serv-, from servire meaning 'to serve' or 'do duty'. In sport, a player 'offers' the ball to start play, so to serve is to begin a point by putting the ball into play.