(v. t.) To work for; to labor in behalf of; to exert one's self continuously or statedly for the benefit of; to do service for; to be in the employment of, as an inferior, domestic, serf, slave, hired assistant, official helper, etc.; specifically, in a religious sense, to obey and worship.
(v. t.) To be subordinate to; to act a secondary part under; to appear as the inferior of; to minister to.
(v. t.) To be suitor to; to profess love to.
(v. t.) To wait upon; to supply the wants of; to attend; specifically, to wait upon at table; to attend at meals; to supply with food; as, to serve customers in a shop.
(v. t.) Hence, to bring forward, arrange, deal, or distribute, as a portion of anything, especially of food prepared for eating; -- often with up; formerly with in.
(v. t.) To perform the duties belonging to, or required in or for; hence, to be of use to; as, a curate may serve two churches; to serve one's country.
(v. t.) To contribute or conduce to; to promote; to be sufficient for; to satisfy; as, to serve one's turn.
(v. t.) To answer or be (in the place of something) to; as, a sofa serves one for a seat and a couch.
(v. t.) To treat; to behave one's self to; to requite; to act toward; as, he served me very ill.
(v. t.) To work; to operate; as, to serve the guns.
(v. t.) To bring to notice, deliver, or execute, either actually or constructively, in such manner as the law requires; as, to serve a summons.
(v. t.) To make legal service opon (a person named in a writ, summons, etc.); as, to serve a witness with a subp/na.
(v. t.) To pass or spend, as time, esp. time of punishment; as, to serve a term in prison.
(v. t.) To copulate with; to cover; as, a horse serves a mare; -- said of the male.
(v. t.) To lead off in delivering (the ball).
(v. t.) To wind spun yarn, or the like, tightly around (a rope or cable, etc.) so as to protect it from chafing or from the weather. See under Serving.
(v. i.) To be a servant or a slave; to be employed in labor or other business for another; to be in subjection or bondage; to render menial service.
(v. i.) To perform domestic offices; to be occupied with household affairs; to prepare and dish up food, etc.
(v. i.) To be in service; to do duty; to discharge the requirements of an office or employment. Specifically, to act in the public service, as a soldier, seaman. etc.
(v. i.) To be of use; to answer a purpose; to suffice; to suit; to be convenient or favorable.
(v. i.) To lead off in delivering the ball.
Example Sentences:
(1) These variants may serve as useful gene markers in alcohol research involving animal model studies with inbred strains in mice.
(2) The results indicated that neuropsychological measures may serve to broaden the concept of intelligence and that a brain-related criterion may contribute to a fuller understanding of its nature.
(3) The possibility that the ventral nerve photoreceptor cells serve a neurosecretory function in the adult Limulus is discussed.
(4) Despite a 10-year deadline to have the same number of ethnic minority officers in the ranks as in the populations they serve, the target was missed and police are thousands of officers short.
(5) Evidence is presented in support of the hypothesis that fresh bat guano serves as a means of pathogenic fungi dissemination in caves.
(6) Human gingival fibroblasts were allowed to attach and spread on bio-glasses for 1-72 h. Unreactive silica glass and cell culture polystyrene served as controls.
(7) Abbott also unveiled his new ministry, which confirmed only one woman would serve in the first Abbott cabinet.
(8) Patients served as their individual control based on observations of at least 1 year before the study.
(9) It is entirely proper for serving judges to set out the arguments in high-profile cases to help public understanding of the legal issues, as long as it is done in an even-handed way.
(10) Female littermates injected with 0.15 M NaCl served as controls.
(11) One-half of the specimens were treated with citric acid, pH 1, for 3 minutes, while the remainder served as untreated control specimens.
(12) The functions of O-GlcNAc remain largely unknown, but it may be important in blocking phosphorylation sites, it may be required for the assembly of specific multiprotein complexes, it might serve as a nuclear transport signal, or it may be directly involved in the active transport of macromolecules across nuclear pores.
(13) It has 200 volunteers each week to serve 38,000 individuals.
(14) Child age was negatively correlated with mother's use of commands, reasoning, threats, and bribes, and positively correlated with maternal nondirectives, servings, and child compliance.
(15) We suggest that neuronal PACAP may serve to modulate motor activity and secretion in the lower esophageal sphincter region.
(16) In a poll before the debate, 48% predicted that Merkel, who will become Europe's longest serving leader if re-elected on 22 September, would emerge as the winner of the US-style debate, while 26% favoured Steinbruck, a former finance minister who is known for his quick-wit and rhetorical skills, but sometimes comes across as arrogant.
(17) Eight vagotomy-gastrectomy dogs were studied; 4 had a jejunal fistula, and 4 other dogs without a fistula served as controls.
(18) It is suggested the participation of glycogen (starch) in the self-oscillatory mechanism of the futile cycle formed by the phosphofructokinase and fructose bisphosphatase reactions may give rise to oscillations with the period of 10(3)-10(4) min, which may serve as the basis for the cell clock.
(19) Variables from the medical history, physical examination, laboratory tests, and radiographs were used to develop different sets of criteria to serve different investigative purposes.
(20) This system may serve as a model to explain the mechanisms by which cells accumulate in inflamed joints.
Summons
Definition:
(v.) The act of summoning; a call by authority, or by the command of a superior, to appear at a place named, or to attend to some duty.
(v.) A warning or citation to appear in court; a written notification signed by the proper officer, to be served on a person, warning him to appear in court at a day specified, to answer to the plaintiff, testify as a witness, or the like.
(v.) A demand to surrender.
(v. t.) To summon.
Example Sentences:
(1) Senior executives at Network Rail are likely to be summoned to Westminster to explain the engineering overruns that caused chaos for Christmas travellers over the weekend.
(2) After five days watching birds illegally shot down and becoming embroiled in tense stand-offs with the police and hunters, Packham was summoned to a police station and interviewed for five hours.
(3) Had not Jaggers summoned me to see him on the day of my majority some years later, I might have wondered at the psychological implausibility of an old woman training a child to be a psychopath, but luckily I was so caught up by the possibility of my benefactor's name being revealed that the thought quite slipped my mind.
(4) Letterman was summoned to a grand jury hearing later yesterday at which he gave his side of the story.
(5) Chelsea must summon a response at Atlético Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final on Tuesday, trying to blot out the memory of the lead that was surrendered so wastefully here.
(6) RPC wrote back the next day saying Ashley was in the US and complained that the official had mentioned the prospect of a formal summons for Ashley: “Raising the spectre of a summons, in circumstances where our client has already volunteered the chairman as a witness to assist the committee and we are now liaising over availability, is, in our client’s view, inappropriate.” In the email, RPC said Hellawell was no longer available on 4 March but was now free on 25 March.
(7) Horrocks plans to summon the spirit of Margaret Thatcher to make his case: “The [1970] Conservative government came in with a manifesto commitment to kill the Open University, to kill Harold Wilson’s brainchild at birth.
(8) The banalities of a news conference take on a strange significance when the men who summon the world's cameras are members of a feared insurgent group that banned television when they ruled Afghanistan and sheltered al-Qaida.
(9) The French president, François Hollande, summoned key ministers to a crisis meeting on Thursday afternoon, postponing a planned visit to France's Indian Ocean territories.
(10) But among the football-faith community the legendary Anfield Road stadium is not considered a sacred site for nothing, and on this memorable night everyone felt what mighty magic can be summoned here.” Describing the match as “a classic in the illustrious history of these two clubs for years to come”, the commentator Daniel Theweleit also believed that the atmosphere at Anfield put Dortmund’s own famed fan culture into the shade: “Even those who have watched the club for centuries agreed that Dortmund has never achieved this kind of intensity.” Munich-based Süddeutsche Zeitung found satisfaction in seeing the German coach Jürgen Klopp exporting his magic touch across the Channel.
(11) The Chelsea manager, José Mourinho, is anticipating a Football Association summons after Saturday’s loss to Southampton .
(12) The former Liverpool, Chelsea and Real Madrid coach made an immediate impact, interrupting a scheduled squad day off by summoning his players for an introductory meeting and training session on Friday afternoon.
(13) The shooting down of the plane comes the day after Turkey called for a UN security council meeting to discuss Russian actions in Syria, following the summoning of the Russian ambassador in Ankara to hear a protest over air attacks on Turkmen villages.
(14) So why is a CEO such as Marissa Mayer summoning Yahoo staff back into the office ?
(15) Around 400 attended court on Friday, most of them responding to a court summons for the first time, many of them anxious and angry about the process.
(16) In addition, BBC executives and trustees were summoned by parliamentary committees more than once a month.
(17) "Some of you may have heard we have a new judge this year," said Forsyth, summoning his finest brow-raise and hauling the audience at least temporarily on side by sheer force of showbiz will.
(18) Stanley stood up, summoned his secretary and said: "Call my bookie."
(19) The general atmosphere was that there was no point in summoning the police – the policeman is a local settler from Kiryat Arba who comes to pray with the Hebron settlers at the Tomb of the Patriarchs on Fridays.
(20) The Brexiters, by summoning up the patriotic genie, are implicitly calling on Britons to either become more parochial and less diverse – or else aspire to a second imperial age.