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say it: surv
serve is a verb and noun meaning "serve a purpose, role, or function". It carries 16 recorded senses.
do duty or hold offices; serve in a specific function
“He served as head of the department for three years”
“She served in Congress for two terms”
devote (part of) one's life or efforts to, as of countries, institutions, or ideas
“She served the art of music”
“He served the church”
“serve the country”
promote, benefit, or be useful or beneficial to
“Art serves commerce”
“Their interests are served”
“The lake serves recreation”
“The President's wisdom has served the country well”
do military service
“She served in Vietnam”
“My sons never served, because they are short-sighted”
(sports) a stroke that puts the ball in play
“his powerful serves won the game”
tennis · badminton · squash
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for serve come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.