to serve someone right
3
6.6
- idiom
- Informal
:
merecer
- He didn't study for the exam, so it will serve him right when he fails.
Examples
-
That serves you right.
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Serves you right!
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And it will serve him right.
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That will serve someone right!
Fiction book (1998) -
Yeah, it serves them right.
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You get sick, it'll serve you right.
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It would serve him right.
Fiction book (1991) -
And it serves them right for overcharging.
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It serves you right.
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After Wolfe is convicted of theft, however, the doctor indignantly declares to his wife: "Serves him right!"
Academic text (1994)
Synonyms
22
7.3
A punishment that someone deserves because of their own wrong actions
Antonyms
How Just
1
3.4
- Informal
3
6.6
Surface Forms
Morphology
The components 'serve' (to give/meet a purpose) and 'right' (just, deserved) combine to signal that a consequence is deserved, so a B1 learner who knows the words can often infer that meaning. However, the construction is somewhat idiomatic in usage (the phrasing 'serve someone right' as a fixed pattern) and requires recognizing a figurative 'be deserving' sense of 'serve', so it is not fully compositional.
Etymology
Serve someone right comes from the idea of serve as 'to give' and right as 'correct', like giving someone the exact thing they deserve. So when someone gets a result that fits their bad action, people say it 'serves them right' to mean it is 'just deserved'.