Etimology
From Middle English servise, from Old French servise (French service), from the verb servir, from Latin servitium (compare Portuguese serviço, Italian servizio, Norman sèrvice, Spanish servicio), from servus (“servant; serf; slave”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ser-wo-s (“guardian”), possibly from *ser- (“watch over, protect”). Displaced native Old English þeġnung.
noun
service (countable and uncountable, plural services)
An act of being of assistance to someone.
The state of being subordinate to or employed by an individual or group.
Work as a member of the military.
(economics) The practice of providing assistance as economic activity.
(business) Synonym of utility (“commodity provided on a continuous basis by a physical infrastructure network, such as electricity, water supply or sewerage”).
A department in a company, organization, or institution.
(computing) A function that is provided by one program or machine for another.
The military.
A set of dishes or utensils.
(sports) The act of initially starting, or serving, the ball in play in tennis, volleyball, and other games.
A religious rite or ritual.
(law) The serving, or delivery, of a summons or writ.
(Israel, West Bank, also in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria) A taxi shared among unrelated passengers, each of whom pays part of the fare; often, it has a fixed route between cities.
A musical composition for use in churches.
(obsolete) Profession of respect; acknowledgment of duty owed.
(nautical) The materials used for serving a rope, etc., such as spun yarn and small lines.
Access to resources such as hotel rooms and Web-based videos without transfer of the resources' ownership.
Examples
I say I did him a service by ending our relationship – now he can freely pursue his career.
The Parliament for ever cries more money, / The service of the state demands more money. / Just heaven! of what service is the state?
Then he commenced to talk, really talk. and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show. He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all.
Lancelot was at the service of King Arthur.
The lesser griefs that may be said, / That breathe a thousand tender vows, / Are but as servants in a house / Where lies the master newly dead; / Who speak their feeling as it is, / And weep the fulness from the mind: / ‘It will be hard’ they say ‘to find / Another service such as this.’
Thank you for your service.
Hair care is a service industry.
The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you "stay up to date with what your friends are doing",[...]and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.
This machine provides the name service for the LAN.
I did three years in the service before coming here.
She brought out the silver tea service.
When their lavish fiestas ended they threw the silver service and even golden vessels from their balconies to be picked up by lucky passersby.
The player had four service faults in the set.
Here, in the transept and choir, where the service was being held, one was conscious every moment of an increasing brightness; colours glowing vividly beneath the circular chandeliers, and the rows of small lights on the choristers' desks flashed and sparkled in front of the boys' faces, deep linen collars, and red neckbands.
The funeral service was touching.
He Suſpends on theſe Reaſons, that Thomas Rue had granted a general Diſcharge to Adam Muſhet, who was his Conjunct, and correus debendi, after the alleadged Service, which Diſcharged Muſhet, and conſequently Houstoun his Partner.
The service happened yesterday.
Pray, do my service to his majesty.
Related words
antonyms
(economics): capital
hyponyms
accept service
advisory service
all-up service
answering service
bond service
bus replacement service
church service
civil service
client service
community service
curb service
customer service
debt service
denture service
dinner service
diplomatic service
disservice
divine service
ecological service
emergency service
escort service
extension service
eyeservice
fanservice
food service
foreign service
health service
ill service
memorial service
micro service
military service
national service
online service
personal service
postal service
power service
prayer service
public service
rail replacement service
room service
Secret Service
secret service
selective service
shared service
silent service
silver service
social service
stopping service
substituted service
table service
tea service
Web service
wire service
yeoman's service
coordinate terms
(economics, business): good
related terms
service à la française
service à la russe
verb
service (third-person singular simple present services, present participle servicing, simple past and past participle serviced)
(transitive) To serve.
(transitive, agriculture, euphemistic) To inseminate through sexual intercourse.
(transitive, vulgar) To perform a sexual act upon.
(transitive, military, euphemistic) To attack.
Examples
They service the customer base.
The USS Manila Bay, in the next group south of Taffy 3, services aircraft from eleven different squadrons that aren't attached to her own flight group, and, at one point, has representatives from no less than four other carriers' airgroups on her flight deck at the same time.
He is going to service the car.
One obvious way is press releases, which should be sent to your region's reporters, editors and columnists, the wire services, professional publications. […] Servicing the media should be an everyday thing.
[…] instead of expending so much of their PR effort on servicing the media.
He serviced her several times a week.
to service a target; target servicing
Related words
synonyms
(to serve): attend, wait on; See also Thesaurus:serve
(to perform a sexual act): be with, go to bed with, sleep with; see also Thesaurus:copulate with
Etimology
Properly, the tree that bears sorb fruit, from Middle English serves, plural of serve (“sorb apple, serviceberry”), from Old English syrfe, from Vulgar Latin *sorbea, from Latin sorbus (“service tree”). See sorb.
noun
service (plural services)
Service tree.
The sorb; the fruit of this tree.