service

• seruice (obsolete)

• (Received Pronunciation, General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈsɜː.vɪs/

  • Audio (Southern England):

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• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /ˈsɝ.vɪs/

  • Audio (California):

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• (Indic) IPA^(key): /ˈsər.vɪs/, /ˈsərˌvis/, (non-rhotic) [ˈsəː-]
• Hyphenation: ser‧vice
• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)vɪs

From Middle English servise, from Old English serfis, 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”).^[1] Displaced native Old English þeġnung.

service (countable and uncountable, plural services)

1. An act of being of assistance to someone.

   I say I did him a service by ending our relationship – now he can freely pursue his career.

   • 1794, Robert Southey, Wat Tyler. A Dramatic Poem. In Three Acts, London: J[ohn] M‘Creery, […] for Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, […], published 1817, →OCLC, Act I, page 7:

     The Parliament for ever cries more money, / The service of the state demands more money. / Just heaven! of what service is the state?

   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter IV, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     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.

2. The state of being subordinate to or employed by an individual or group.

   Lancelot was at the service of King Arthur.

   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XX”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 33:

     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.’

4. (elliptical, uncountable) Work as a member of the military.

   Synonym: military service

   Thank you for your service.

6. (with the) The military.

   the service

   I did three years in the service before coming here.

8. (economics) The practice of providing assistance as economic activity.

   Hair care is a service industry.

   • 2013 June 21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27:

     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.

9. (business) Synonym of utility (“commodity provided on a continuous basis by a physical infrastructure network, such as electricity, water supply or sewerage”).
10. A department in a company, organization, or institution.
11. (computing) A function that is provided by one program or machine for another.

    This machine provides the name service for the LAN.

12. A set of dishes or utensils.

    She brought out the silver tea service.

    • 1997, Eduardo Galeano, Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, Monthly Review Press, page 36:

      When their lavish fiestas ended they threw the silver service and even golden vessels from their balconies to be picked up by lucky passersby.

13. (sports) The act of initially starting, or serving, the ball in play in tennis, volleyball, and other games.

    The player had four service faults in the set.

14. A religious rite or ritual.
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

      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 funerary service was touching.

15. (law) The serving, or delivery, of a summons or writ.
    • 1668 July 3, James Dalrymple, “Thomas Rue contra Andrew Houſtoun” in The Deciſions of the Lords of Council & Seſſion I (Edinburgh, 1683), page 548:

      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.

16. (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.
17. A musical composition for use in churches.
18. (obsolete) Profession of respect; acknowledgment of duty owed.
    • 1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

      Pray, do my service to his majesty.

19. (nautical) The materials used for serving a rope, etc., such as spun yarn and small lines.
20. Access to resources such as hotel rooms and Web-based videos without transfer of the resources' ownership.

In British English, the indefinite article a is often used with “good service”, as in "A good service is operating on all London Underground lines", whereas this is not used in American English.

• (antonym(s) of “economics”): capital

• (economics, business): good

• service à la française
• service à la russe

service (third-person singular simple present services, present participle servicing, simple past and past participle serviced)

1. (transitive) To serve.

   They service the customer base.

   • 2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 28:07 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?‎^[1], archived from the original on 3 November 2022:

     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.

   1. (transitive) To perform maintenance.

      He is going to service the car.

      • 1980 August 30, “Personal advertisement”, in Gay Community News, volume 8, number 6, page 14:

        2 GWM businessmen seek young GM to service nice small country home in So. NH

   2. (public relations, transitive) To supply (media outlets) with press releases etc.
      • 1977, Patricia Marshall, Citizen Participation Certification for Community Development, page 107:

        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.

      • 1971, College and University Journal, volumes 10-11, page 9:

        […] instead of expending so much of their PR effort on servicing the media.

2. (transitive) To make a repayment or pay interest (on a debt).

   It continues to be laden with intense debt servicing costs.

3. (transitive, agriculture, euphemistic) To inseminate through sexual intercourse.
4. (transitive, vulgar) To perform a sexual act upon.

   He serviced her several times a week.

5. (transitive, military, euphemistic) To attack.

   to service a target

   target servicing

• (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

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”).^[2] See sorb.

service (plural services)

2. Service tree.
4. The sorb; the fruit of this tree.

• cerevis, scrieve

Borrowed from English service.

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• Hyphenation: ser‧vice

service f or m (plural services, no diminutive)

1. service
2. after-sales

Inherited from Old French servise, borrowed from Latin servitium (compare Portuguese serviço, Italian servizio, Norman sèrvice, Spanish servicio), from servus.

• IPA^(key): /sɛʁ.vis/

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• Audio (Canada (Shawinigan)):

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• Audio (Switzerland (Valais)):

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• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• Homophones: services, servisse, servissent, servisses

service m (plural services)

1. service

   Cet employé a obtenu sa retraite après trente années de service. ― This employee retired after thirty years of service.

   être d'un bon service ― to be of good service

2. (tennis) service
3. (Switzerland, in the plural) cutlery
4. set (collection of objects)

• servir
• servant
• serf

• → Belarusian: серві́з (sjervíz)
• Haitian Creole: sèvis
• → Romanian: serviciu
• → Turkish: servis
• → Ukrainian: серві́з (servíz)

service

1. (Switzerland) you're welcome

• “service”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012
• “service”, in Dictionnaire français en ligne Larousse

• écrives

service

1. alternative form of servise

• sèrvice (Jersey)

From Old French servise, (compare French service), borrowed from Latin servitium, from servus.

service m (plural services)

1. (Guernsey) service

service oblique singular, m (oblique plural services, nominative singular services, nominative plural service)

1. alternative form of servise

Unadapted borrowing from English service.

service n (plural service-uri)

1. service

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service c

1. service, the level of comfort offered by assistants and servants (the opposite of self-service)
2. maintenance and repair

   min bil är inne på service

   my car is at the workshop

• servis
• tjänst