serves

Definition of servesnext
present tense third-person singular of serve
1
as in works (for)
to be a servant for he served his master faithfully for 20 years

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

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3
as in does
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
5
as in acts
to have a certain purpose the harsh punishment served to teach everyone a lesson

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6
as in benefits
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 serves Daccapo serves upscale Italian fare, including handmade pastas, risotto, and seafood, in a warm, relatively intimate dining room. Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 21 May 2026 Her supercilious caricature of a boss, Suzie (Tara Summers), serves merely as a source of pressure. Television Critic, Los Angeles Times, 20 May 2026 These days, Grande serves as writer and co-producer alongside Martin and Salmanzadeh, who have come to be her closest collaborators. Larisha Paul, Rolling Stone, 20 May 2026 Bruce Miller created the series and serves as executive producer and showrunner. Joe Otterson, Variety, 20 May 2026 In Utah, The Bridge Recovery Center serves guests dealing with chronic conditions such as fibromyalgia, depression, lupus and mood disorders. Hanna Wickes, Charlotte Observer, 20 May 2026 Ira Sachs has an expansive appreciation for male beauty that serves Rami Malek well in The Man I Love. Alison Willmore, Vulture, 20 May 2026 The latest addition was paid for with $100,000 in discretionary funds from Fifth District Supervisor Katrina Foley, who also serves as director of the Orange County Fire Authority. Laylan Connelly, Oc Register, 20 May 2026 In addition to her writing duties, Kazan serves as co-showrunner and executive producer, with Jeb Stuart on as co-showrunner and executive producer as well. Kate Erbland, IndieWire, 13 May 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for serves
Verb
  • But why buy brand new items when an old pillowcase suffices?
    Wendy Rose Gould, Martha Stewart, 14 May 2026
  • That rationale for military power no longer suffices.
    Eliot A. Cohen, The Atlantic, 11 May 2026
Verb
  • To promote the album, Rashad’s team scheduled events not only in Los Angeles and New York but also in Dallas and San Diego—not traditionally strong hip-hop markets, but places where Rashad does especially well.
    Kelefa Sanneh, New Yorker, 15 May 2026
  • The national debt has surpassed the GDP, Social Security and Medicare face looming financial crises, inflation is rising, families are struggling — and yet Congress does nothing.
    Letters to the Editor, The Orlando Sentinel, 15 May 2026
Verb
  • Shah treats daytime exertion as the precondition for nighttime rest, rather than the opposite.
    Angela Haupt, Time, 15 May 2026
  • In a culture built around convenience and replacement, their studio offers a different approach, one that treats damage not as an endpoint, but as the beginning of something that takes time to restore.
    Kansas City Star, Kansas City Star, 14 May 2026
Verb
  • One of the writer’s jobs is, of course, to make a world of words, images, scenes, photographs—a unique artistic world that acts as the container for the story or the meaning.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 20 May 2026
  • Those are followed by a look inside Milpero’s fermentation room, where a sample drink acts as a midway digestif for the spicy, spectacular hot courses served later in the night.
    Miguel Otárola, Denver Post, 19 May 2026
Verb
  • The Warner Theatre hosts the distillery for VIP Room events and fundraisers, and A Tasteful Event, which benefits the FISH food pantry and shelter in Torrington, features food by local restaurants and vendors, including the Litchfield Distillery.
    Emily M. Olson, Hartford Courant, 17 May 2026
  • Opponents of the cuts said closing the Winters benefits office would disproportionately affect low-income residents, particularly those struggling to meet increasingly complex eligibility requirements.
    Daniel Lempres, Sacbee.com, 16 May 2026
Verb
  • Duncan’s daughter attends a private high school that so reliably sends its students to Stanford that even its principal isn’t above committing a bit of fraud to insure her own daughter’s place there.
    Inkoo Kang, New Yorker, 17 May 2026
  • The boys both play football, and Browne often attends their games, sharing videos on Instagram.
    Emily J. Shiffer, PEOPLE, 16 May 2026
Verb
  • Downstairs at The Landing, the Food Hall handles the group's picky eaters with pizza, burgers, and wraps, all without a reservation.
    Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 19 May 2026
  • Ask how the platform handles episodic memory (what happened, with replay), semantic memory grounded in the ontology (so meaning does not drift between agents) and procedural memory expressed as versioned, testable skills and MCP tools.
    Shailesh Manjrekar, Forbes.com, 18 May 2026
Verb
  • Yet masculinism also functions as a perpetual-motion machine of grievance, an inarticulate howl of anguish at the status quo—whatever that currently is.
    Helen Lewis, The Atlantic, 14 May 2026
  • If working families feel more secure and the legislature actually functions as a democratic body, that’s success.
    Eleanor Dearman, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 14 May 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Serves.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/serves. Accessed 21 May. 2026.

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