Meaning & use
yeoman service
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Meaning
noununcountableformal
Faithful, hard-working and very useful help given over a long time, especially by a person or object that is not glamorous.
Grammar: Uncountable; used after do or give: the old van did yeoman service.
Patterns
- do yeoman service
- give yeoman service to someone
The old laptop did yeoman service through four years of study.
Volunteers gave yeoman service during the flood clean-up.
Her small team has done yeoman service for the charity.
Common combinations
- do yeoman service
- The garden shed did yeoman service as a workshop.
- give yeoman service
- He gave yeoman service as treasurer for twenty years.
- yeoman service to
- They have done yeoman service to the town's library.
- years of yeoman service
- After years of yeoman service, the boiler finally failed.
Synonyms and how they differ
- loyal service
- Loyal service focuses on faithfulness, while yeoman service stresses sturdy, practical usefulness.
- sterling work
- Sterling work praises excellent quality, but not necessarily long, humble effort.
- devoted service
- Devoted service suggests deep personal commitment, which yeoman service does not require.
Opposites
Word family
- yeoman noun
- historically a farmer who owned his land, or a loyal attendant
- yeomanry noun
- the class of yeomen, or a volunteer cavalry force
- yeoman's work noun
- a variant meaning steady, solid effort
Commonly confused: yeoman service or yoeman?
yeoman service vs yoeman
This is a frequent misspelling. The correct spelling is yeoman, with ye at the start.
Practice
Our ancient photocopier has ______ for over a decade, and it is finally being retired.
Choose one answer.
The idiom is do yeoman service. The other verbs do not collocate with it.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “yeoman service”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.