serve

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
serve/sɜːv/

▶verb

• 1 perform duties or services for.

  ■ be employed as a member of the armed forces.

  ■ spend (a period) in office, in an apprenticeship, or in prison.

• 2 present food or drink to (someone).

  ■ (of food or drink) be enough for.

  ■ attend to (a customer in a shop).

  ■ Christian Church act as a server at the celebration of the Eucharist.

• 3 Law formally deliver (a summons or writ) to the person to whom it is addressed.

• 4 be of use in achieving something or fulfilling a purpose.

  ■ treat in a specified way.

  ■ (of a male breeding animal) copulate with (a female).

• 5 (in tennis and other racket sports) hit the ball or shuttlecock to begin play for each point of a game.

  ■ (serve out) Tennis win the final game of a set or match while serving.

• 6 Nautical bind (a rope) with thin cord to protect or strengthen it.

• 7 Military operate (a gun).

• 8 archaic play (a trick) on.

▶noun

• 1 an act of serving in tennis, badminton, etc.

• 2 Austral. informal a reprimand.

– phrases
serve someone right be someone's deserved punishment or misfortune.
serve one's (or its) turn be useful or helpful.

– origin ME: from OFr. servir, from L. servire, from servus ‘slave’.