7 VERB [no cont] Serve is used to indicate how much food a recipe produces. For example, a recipe that serves six provides enough food for six people. □ [V n] Garnish with fresh herbs. Serves 4.
8 VERB Someone who serves customers in a shop or a bar helps them and provides them with what they want to buy. □ [V n] They wouldn't serve me in any pubs 'cos I looked too young. □ [V ] Auntie and Uncle suggested she serve in the shop.
9 VERB When the police or other officials serve someone with a legal order or serve an order on them, they give or send the legal order to them. [LEGAL ] □ [V n + with ] Immigration officers tried to serve her with a deportation order. □ [V n + on ] Police said they had been unable to serve a summons on 25-year-old Lee Jones. [Also V n]
10 VERB If you serve something such as a prison sentence or an apprenticeship, you spend a period of time doing it. □ [V n] …Leo, who is currently serving a life sentence for murder.
11 VERB When you serve in games such as tennis and badminton, you throw up the ball or shuttlecock and hit it to start play. □ [V n] He served 17 double faults. □ [V ] If you serve like this nobody can beat you. ● N‑COUNT Serve is also a noun. □ His second serve clipped the net.
12 N‑COUNT When you describe someone's serve , you are indicating how well or how fast they serve a ball or shuttlecock. □ His powerful serve was too much for the defending champion.
13 → see also serving
14 PHRASE If you say it serves someone right when something unpleasant happens to them, you mean that it is their own fault and you have no sympathy for them. [FEELINGS ] □ [+ for ] Serves her right for being so stubborn.
▸ serve out PHRASAL VERB If someone serves out their term of office, contract, or prison sentence, they do not leave before the end of the agreed period of time. □ [V P n] The governor has declared his innocence and says he plans to serve out his term. [Also V n P ]
▸ serve up → see serve 6
serv|er /sɜː r və r / (servers )
1 N‑COUNT In computing, a server is part of a computer network which does a particular task, for example storing or processing information, for all or part of the network. [COMPUTING ]
2 N‑COUNT [oft adj N ] In tennis and badminton, the server is the player whose turn it is to hit the ball or shuttlecock to start play. □ …a brilliant server and volleyer.
3 N‑COUNT [oft n N ] A server is something such as a fork or spoon that is used for serving food. □ …salad servers.
ser|vice ◆◆◆ /sɜː r v I s/ (services , servicing , serviced ) For meaning 14 , services is both the singular and the plural form. 1 N‑COUNT A service is something that the public needs, such as transport, communications facilities, hospitals, or energy supplies, which is provided in a planned and organized way by the government or an official body. □ Britain still boasts the cheapest postal service. □ We have started a campaign for better nursery and school services. □ The authorities have said they will attempt to maintain essential services.
2 N‑COUNT [oft in names] You can sometimes refer to an organization or private company as a particular service when it provides something for the public or acts on behalf of the government. □ …the BBC World Service. □ …Careers Advisory Services.
3 N‑COUNT If an organization or company provides a particular service , they can do a particular job or a type of work for you. □ The kitchen maintains a twenty-four-hour service and can be contacted via Reception. □ The larger firm was capable of providing a better range of services.
4 N‑PLURAL Services are activities such as tourism, banking, and selling things which are part of a country's economy, but are not concerned with producing or manufacturing goods. □ Mining rose by 9.1%, manufacturing by 9.4% and services by 4.3%.
5 N‑UNCOUNT The level or standard of service provided by an organization or company is the amount or quality of the work it can do for you. □ Taking risks is the only way employees can provide effective and efficient customer service.
6 N‑COUNT [usu n N ] A bus or train service is a route or regular journey that is part of a transport system. □ A bus service operates between Bolton and Salford.
7 N‑PLURAL [with poss] Your services are the things that you do or the skills that you use in your job, which other people find useful and are usually willing to pay you for. □ [+ of ] I have obtained the services of a top photographer to take our pictures.
8 N‑UNCOUNT If you refer to someone's service or services to a particular organization or activity, you mean that they have done a lot of work for it or spent a lot of their time on it. □ [+ to ] You've given a lifetime of service to athletics. □ …the two policemen, who have a total of 31 years' service between them.
9 N‑COUNT [usu pl] The Services are the army, the navy, and the air force. □ In June 1945, Britain still had forty-five per cent of its workforce in the Services and munitions industries.
10 N‑UNCOUNT Service is the work done by people or equipment in the army, navy, or air force, for example during a war. □ The regiment was recruited from the Highlands specifically for service in India.