Serve, sėrv, v.t. to be a servant to, to work for and obey: to attend or wait upon: to work for: to obey: to be subservient or subordinate to: to wait upon at table, &c.: to do duty for: to treat, behave towards: to render worship to: to aid by good offices: to minister to a priest at mass: to comply with: to requite: to handle, manipulate: to furnish: (naut.) to bind with small cord: (law) to deliver or present formally: to furnish: to cover, of stallions, &c.: to deliver the ball in tennis.—v.i. to be employed as a servant, to discharge any regular duty: to be in subjection: to suffice, to avail, to be suitable or favourable.—n. in tennis, the act of the first player in striking the ball, or the style in which this is done.—ns. Ser′vage (obs.), servitude: the service of a lover; Ser′ver, one who serves: an attendant on the priest at the celebration of the Eucharist: the player who strikes the tennis-ball first: a salver, any utensil for distributing or helping at table.—Serve an office, to discharge the duties of an office; Serve a process or writ, to formally communicate a process or writ to the person to whom it is addressed; Serve an attachment, to levy such a writ on the person or goods by seizure; Serve an execution, to levy an execution on the person or goods by seizure; Serve a sentence, to undergo the punishment prescribed by a judicial sentence; Serve one a trick, to play a trick on one; Serve one out, to take revenge on some one; Serve one right, to treat one as he deserves; Serve one's time, to complete one's apprenticeship; Serve out, to deal or distribute; Serve the purpose of, to answer adequately an end for which something else is designed; Serve the turn, to suffice for one's immediate purpose or need; Serve time, to undergo a period of imprisonment, &c.; Serve up, to bring to table. [Fr. servir—L. servīre, to serve.]
Servian, ser′vi-an, n. a native of Servia: the language of Servia, belonging to the southern division of the Slav tongues, its nearest congeners Bulgarian, Slovenian, and Russian.
Service, sėr′vis, n. condition or occupation of a servant: a working for another: duty required in any office: military or naval duty: any liturgical form or office, public religious worship, religious ceremonial: a musical composition for devotional purposes: labour, assistance, or kindness to another: benefit: profession of respect: order of dishes at table, or a set of them: official function, use, employment: that which is furnished: a tree of rarely more than 30 feet high, with leaves and flowers like the Rowan-tree, but the former downy beneath—also Sorb.—ns. Serviceabil′ity, Ser′viceableness.—adj. Ser′viceable, able or willing to serve: advantageous: useful: capable of rendering long service, durable.—adv. Ser′viceably.—ns. Ser′vice-berr′y, a berry of the service-tree: (Scot.) the fruit of the white beam: a North American shrub, the shadbush; Ser′vice-book, a book of forms of religious service: a prayer-book; Ser′vice-box, a form of expansion joint, used in street-mains of steam-heating systems; Ser′vice-clean′er, a portable air-compressing pump and receiver for service-pipes; Ser′vice-line, one of two lines drawn across the court twenty-one feet from the net, in lawn-tennis; Ser′vice-mag′azine, a magazine for storing ammunition for immediate use; Ser′vice-pipe, a smaller pipe from a main-pipe to a dwelling; Ser′vice-tree, a tree of the pear family, with close-grained wood and an edible fruit; Ser′ving-mall′et, a piece of wood having a groove on one side to fit the convexity of a rope; Din′ner-ser′vice, a full set of dishes for dinner; Tā′ble-ser′vice, a set of utensils for the table; Wild′-ser′vice, a small species of service-tree, cultivated in England for its fruit and wood.—Service of an heir (Scots law), a proceeding before a jury to determine the heir of a person deceased.—Active service, service of a soldier, &c., in the field, against an enemy; At your service, a phrase of civility; Have seen service, to have been in active military service: to have been put to hard use; Plain service, in Anglican usage, an office which is simply read. [Fr.,—L. servitium.]
Servient, ser′vi-ent, adj. subordinate.
Serviette, ser-vi-et′, n. a table-napkin. [Fr.]
Servile, sėr′vīl, adj. pertaining to a slave or servant: slavish: meanly submissive: cringing: obedient: (gram.) secondary or subordinate.—n. a slave, a menial.—adv. Ser′vilely.—ns. Ser′vilism, the spirit of a servile class; Servil′ity (obs. Ser′vileness), state or quality of being servile: slavery: obsequiousness; Ser′ving-maid, a female domestic servant; Ser′ving-man, a male servant: a professed lover.—adj. Ser′vious, obsequious.—ns. Ser′vīte, one of a mendicant order of monks and nuns founded in Italy in the 13th century; Servit′ium (law), service; Ser′vitor, one who serves: a servant: a follower or adherent: a male servant, a menial: soldier: formerly in Oxford, an undergraduate partly supported by the college, his duty to wait on the fellows and gentlemen commoners at table; Ser′vitorship, the office or condition of a servitor; Ser′vitūde, state of being a slave: slavery: state of slavish dependence: menial service: compulsory servitude: (law) a burden affecting land or other heritable subjects, by which the proprietor is either restrained from the full use of his property or is obliged to suffer another to do certain acts upon it: service rendered in the army or navy: (obs.) servants collectively; Ser′vitūre (Milt.), servants collectively.—v.i. Ser′vulate.
Sesame, ses′a-mē, n. an annual herbaceous plant of Southern Asia, whose seed yields the valuable gingili-oil.—adjs. Ses′amoid, -al, denoting certain small bones found in the substance of the tendons at the articulations of the great toes, and in other parts of the body.—n. Ses′amum, the genus to which sesame belongs.—Open sesame, the charm by which the door of the robbers' cave flew open in the tale of 'Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves' in the Arabian Nights. [Fr.,—L.,—Gr.]
Sesban, ses′ban, n. a shrub of the bean family, with yellow flowers, native to Egypt.—Also Jyntee. [Fr.,—Ar. seisebān.]
Seseli, ses′el-i, n. a genus of umbelliferous plants, usually perennial, with erect branching stems—including the mountain meadow-saxifrage. [Gr.]
Sesha, sā′sha, n. the king of the serpents in Hindu mythology, having a thousand heads, the buttresses of the world.