serve

Definition of servenext
1
as in to attend
to be a servant for he served his master faithfully for 20 years

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2
as in to suffice
to be enough they made the pasta serve for eight guests

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3
as in to do
to be fitting or proper those old riding boots will serve for now, but you'll need newer ones for the horse show

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4
as in to treat
to behave toward in a stated way my parents served me well in preparing me for life

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5
as in to act
to have a certain purpose the harsh punishment served to teach everyone a lesson

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6
as in to benefit
to provide with something useful or desirable an excellent college that served her with the skills necessary to make it in today's job market

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of serve Epstein served about 13 months in a Florida jail, and was often permitted to leave the jail on work release. Aysha Bagchi, USA Today, 3 July 2026 Food and drink A selection of cheeses is served alongside an evening glass of vino from a local winery. Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 2 July 2026 OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta are all pricing inference below the cost of serving it, burning venture capital to buy market share. Jemma Green, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026 Mining will serve as the partnership’s initial focus before expanding into other industrial applications. Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 2 July 2026 See All Example Sentences for serve
Recent Examples of Synonyms for serve
Verb
  • Charlie Kirk’s parents and his widow, Erika Kirk, are expected to attend as weeklong preliminary hearing begins July 6.
    N'dea Yancey-Bragg, USA Today, 6 July 2026
  • Kirk’s parents and his widow, Erika Kirk, will attend this week’s hearing, a source familiar with the situation told CNN.
    Nicki Brown, CNN Money, 6 July 2026
Verb
  • If time doesn’t allow for spa treatments, a morning swim in the indoor pool accompanied by a sauna and cold plunge in one of their two thermal suites might suffice.
    Katie Kelly Bell, Forbes.com, 1 July 2026
  • Nothing less than radical, out-of-the-box thinking will suffice given their current, suffocating, purgatorial scenario.
    Dieter Kurtenbach, Mercury News, 29 June 2026
Verb
  • The divergence is over whether the worker shortage is improving slowly or still getting worse, and what the Supreme Court should do about it.
    Sonja Sharp, Los Angeles Times, 6 July 2026
  • The band is forced into doing take after take in his quest to fully convey his own emotions.
    Sabrina Reed, Forbes.com, 6 July 2026
Verb
  • If your go-to bag is a roomy tote, treat yourself to the Medium City Tote by Coach.
    Reece Andavolgyi, InStyle, 4 July 2026
  • He was then treated by medical staff and was considered stable, police said.
    Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times, 3 July 2026
Verb
  • Mozeliak argues the team doesn’t need to tank to win, but rather act more like a big market team.
    Bill Shaikin, Los Angeles Times, 6 July 2026
  • Maintenance inhalers are either long-acting airway dilators or anti-inflammatory medications like steroids that patients should take daily.
    Alexandra Frost, USA Today, 5 July 2026
Verb
  • Even cars that do benefit from premium gas probably don’t need anything above 91 octane.
    David Goldman, CNN Money, 3 July 2026
  • Republicans have also alleged that Mary Peltola, the frontrunner Democratic candidate for Senate, stands to benefit from voter confusion over both Sullivans.
    Oren Oppenheim, ABC News, 3 July 2026
Verb
  • For example, in 2011, the FDA warned parents, caregivers, and healthcare providers not to feed SimplyThick, a thickening gel, to premature infants fitting a particular profile.
    David Hilzenrath, USA Today, 2 July 2026
  • Surveillance pricing is when a company uses a customer’s private data to show them a cost fitted to them, instead of charging every customer the same rate.
    Audrey McGlinchy, Los Angeles Times, 1 July 2026
Verb
  • About 55% of injuries happen to people actively handling fireworks, and nearly a quarter of the injuries are to bystanders.
    Stephen J. Beard, USA Today, 3 July 2026
  • Key indicators include how teams handle uncertainty, genuinely challenge each other, learn from failures, and base decisions on current realities.
    Tracy Lawrence, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Serve.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/serve. Accessed 6 Jul. 2026.

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