service

• seruice (obsolete)

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsɜːvɪs/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsɝvɪs/

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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”). Displaced the native Old English þenest.

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:

     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. Lincoln, chapter 4, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     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. (economics) The practice of providing such a service 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.

3. A department in a company, an organization, a government department, etc.
4. (computing) A function that is provided by one program or machine for another.

   This machine provides the name service for the LAN.

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

   Lancelot was at the service of King Arthur.

6. The military.

   I did three years in the service before coming here.

7. A set of dishes or utensils.

   She brought out the silver tea service.

8. (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.

9. A religious rite or ritual.
   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 5, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     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.

10. (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.

11. (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.
12. A musical composition for use in churches.
13. (obsolete) Profession of respect; acknowledgment of duty owed.
    • Shakespeare

      Pray, do my service to his majesty.

14. (nautical) The materials used for serving a rope, etc., such as spun yarn and small lines.

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.

• (action or work that is produced and consumed): good
• capital

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.

2. (transitive) To perform maintenance.

   He is going to service the car.

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

   He was going to service her.

• (to serve): attend, wait on; See also Thesaurus:serve

• Japanese: サービス (sābisu)
• Korean: 서비스 (seobiseu)

service (plural services)

1. service tree

• cerevis, scrieve

Borrowed from English service.

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• Hyphenation: ser‧vice

service f or m (plural services)

1. service

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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service m (plural services)

1. service
2. (tennis) service
3. (Switzerland, in the plural) cutlery

• servir
• servant
• serf

service

1. (Switzerland) you're welcome

• “service” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• écrives

• sèrvice (Jersey)

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

service m (plural services)

1. (Guernsey) service

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

1. Alternative form of servise

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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