Meaning & use
serve
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Meanings
verbtransitive or intransitive
To bring food or drink to someone, or to give out portions of it.
Grammar: Takes an object: serve dinner; or none: the café serves until noon.
Patterns
- serve something to someone
- serve someone something
She served soup to the guests.
The restaurant serves breakfast all day.
verbtransitive or intransitive
To work for a person, group or country, doing what is needed.
Grammar: Often with as or in: serve as mayor.
Patterns
- serve as something
- serve in something
He served in the navy for ten years.
She served as treasurer of the club.
verbtransitive or intransitive
To help customers in a shop or business.
Grammar: Takes an object: serve a customer.
Patterns
- serve someone
The clerk served three customers at once.
Are you being served?
verbintransitive
To be useful for a purpose or to do the job of something.
Grammar: Often with as: serve as a warning.
Patterns
- serve as something
- serve to do something
The old crate served as a coffee table.
The failure should serve as a lesson.
verbtransitive or intransitivesport
To hit the ball to start a point in tennis and similar games.
Grammar: Intransitive: it's her turn to serve.
She served an ace.
He serves well from the left.
verbtransitivelegal
To spend a period of time in prison or in an official role.
Grammar: Takes a time object: serve a sentence.
Patterns
- serve a sentence
He served two years in prison.
She served a full term as governor.
Word forms
| third person singular | serves |
|---|---|
| past tense | served |
| past participle | served |
| -ing form | serving |
| plural | serves |
Common combinations
- serve dinner
- We serve dinner at seven.
- serve as
- The hall serves as a theater.
- serve the community
- She wants to serve the community.
- serve a purpose
- The rule serves a purpose.
- serve a sentence
- He served a sentence for fraud.
Synonyms and how they differ
- wait on
- Wait on is for attending to diners and is more informal.
- function
- Function as stresses acting in a role.
- dish up
- Dish up is informal and means putting food on plates.
Opposites
Word family
Practice
The old barn now ___ as a community center.
Choose one answer.
Serve as is the standard pattern for taking a role. Acts as is possible in other contexts but is less natural for a building's function here, and works as emphasizes a job.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “serve”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.