Definition of Serve

Serve

To work for; to labor in behalf of; to exert one's self continuously or statedly for the benefit of; to do service for; to be in the employment of, as an inferior, domestic, serf, slave, hired assistant, official helper, etc.; specifically, in a religious sense, to obey and worship.

To be subordinate to; to act a secondary part under; to appear as the inferior of; to minister to.

To be suitor to; to profess love to.

To wait upon; to supply the wants of; to attend; specifically, to wait upon at table; to attend at meals; to supply with food; as, to serve customers in a shop.

Hence, to bring forward, arrange, deal, or distribute, as a portion of anything, especially of food prepared for eating; -- often with up; formerly with in.

To perform the duties belonging to, or required in or for; hence, to be of use to; as, a curate may serve two churches; to serve one's country.

To contribute or conduce to; to promote; to be sufficient for; to satisfy; as, to serve one's turn.

To answer or be (in the place of something) to; as, a sofa serves one for a seat and a couch.

To treat; to behave one's self to; to requite; to act toward; as, he served me very ill.

To work; to operate; as, to serve the guns.

To bring to notice, deliver, or execute, either actually or constructively, in such manner as the law requires; as, to serve a summons.

To make legal service opon (a person named in a writ, summons, etc.); as, to serve a witness with a subp/na.

To pass or spend, as time, esp. time of punishment; as, to serve a term in prison.

To copulate with; to cover; as, a horse serves a mare; -- said of the male.

To lead off in delivering (the ball).

To wind spun yarn, or the like, tightly around (a rope or cable, etc.) so as to protect it from chafing or from the weather. See under Serving.

To be a servant or a slave; to be employed in labor or other business for another; to be in subjection or bondage; to render menial service.

To perform domestic offices; to be occupied with household affairs; to prepare and dish up food, etc.

To be in service; to do duty; to discharge the requirements of an office or employment. Specifically, to act in the public service, as a soldier, seaman. etc.

To be of use; to answer a purpose; to suffice; to suit; to be convenient or favorable.

To lead off in delivering the ball.

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Serve Quotations

Property is intended to serve life, and no matter how much we surround it with rights and respect, it has no personal being. It is part of the earth man walks on. It is not man.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

The high destiny of the individual is to serve rather than to rule.
Albert Einstein

Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new at all.
Abraham Lincoln

If I am walking with two other men, each of them will serve as my teacher. I will pick out the good points of the one and imitate them, and the bad points of the other and correct them in myself.
Confucius

If you would have a faithful servant, and one that you like, serve yourself.
Benjamin Franklin

Unconditional war can no longer lead to unconditional victory. It can no longer serve to settle disputes... can no longer be of concern to great powers alone.
John F. Kennedy

Can anything be so elegant as to have few wants, and to serve them one's self?
Ralph Waldo Emerson

I do not concern myself with gods and spirits either good or evil nor do I serve any.
Lao Tzu

Men have a respect for scholarship and learning greatly out of proportion to the use they commonly serve.
Henry David Thoreau

It is essential to seek out enemy agents who have come to conduct espionage against you and to bribe them to serve you. Give them instructions and care for them. Thus doubled agents are recruited and used.
Sun Tzu