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Glite Dictionary
to serve time

to serve time

35 6.7
To spend time in prison as punishment for a crime
  • phrasal verb
  • /sɜrv taɪm/
translation icon : cumplir una condena
  • After his conviction, he was sentenced to five years and began serving time in prison.
  • serve time in prison
  • serve time in jail
  • serve time for an offense

The three men met in a Wisconsin prison where they were currently serving time for fraud related charges.

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Examples

  • In California, felons serving time in prison or county jail are denied their right to vote.

    Blog text (19)

  • If you fail to meet with any of those conditions, you will have to serve time.

    Good Will Hunting (1997)

  • Did you serve time for those crimes?

    Blood Done Sign My Name (2010)

  • Both parents are serving time in jail.

    Academic text (2006)

  • The three men met in a Wisconsin prison where they were currently serving time for fraud related charges.

    Patrick Boyle

  • The ad also featured an appearance by Martha Stewart, who served time after being convicted for insider trading.

    Blog text (34)

  • Today's guests are youngsters who are currently serving time for murdering their parents.

    Little Fish, Strange Pond (2009)

  • At this writing, an estimated 500,000 adults are serving time in a US prison or jail for a drug-related offense.

    Academic text (2011)

  • In 2007, 1 in every 198 Americans was serving time in prison (West & Sabol, 2009).

    Academic text (2009)

  • Some local members converted while serving time in U.S. prisons before being deported back to Haiti.

    Blog text (9)

Synonyms

to do
vsto serve time
  • Informal
∞ 8.2

Spend time in prison as punishment

is the neutral expression rather than informal slang
to serve
vsto serve time
306 7.5

To spend time in prison as a punishment

uses a short verb form for the same prison sentence action
to pay one's debt to society
vsto serve time
5 7.1

To serve the punishment for a crime, often by going to prison

focuses on moral repayment rather than the literal prison sentence
to do one's own time
vsto serve time
  • Jargon
8.8

Serve a prison sentence without involving other people

is the general idea without stressing independence

Antonyms

release
279 1.8

An act of letting someone or something go free from being held

to pardon
  • Formal
92 3.9

To officially forgive someone for a crime and free them from punishment

How Long

life imprisonment
  • Formal
15 4.7
to serve time
35 6.7
parole
  • Specialized
416 6.7

Surface Forms

serve time infinitive
served time past
served time past participle
serving time present participle
serves time third person singular

Morphology

serve + time

The components 'serve' (undergo/perform) and 'time' (a period) give a partial clue — a learner could infer 'spend a period' — but the specific sense 'spend a period in prison' depends on legal collocation (serve a sentence/serve time) and is not fully predictable from the words alone. Because the prison-specific meaning requires familiarity with this collocation rather than pure compositional inference, it is only partially transparent to a B1 learner.

Etymology

The phrase serve time may come from the idea of serve meaning 'to do a duty' and time meaning the fixed period you must give, like a long work shift done day after day in one place. So, it came to mean 'to spend a period in prison as punishment'.