| serval | <zoology> An African wild cat (Felis serval) of moderate size. It has rather long legs and a tail of moderate length. Its colour is tawny, with black spots on the body and rings of black on the tail. Origin: Cf. F. Serval. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| servaline | <zoology> Related to, or resembling, the serval. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| servation | The use or function of an organ. (05 Mar 2000) |
| serve | 1. To work for; to labour in behalf of; to exert one's self continuously or statedly for the benefit of; to do service for; to be in the employment of, as an inferior, domestic, serf, slave, hired assistant, official helper, etc.; specifically, in a religious sense, to obey and worship. "God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit." (Rom. I. 9) "Jacob loved Rachel; and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter." (Gen. Xxix. 18) "No man can serve two masters." (Matt. Vi. 24) "Had I but served my God with half the zeal I served my king, he would not in mine age Have left me naked to mine enemies." (Shak) 2. To be subordinate to; to act a secondary part under; to appear as the inferior of; to minister to. "Bodies bright and greater should not serve The less not bright." (Milton) 3. To be suitor to; to profess love to. "To serve a lady in his beste wise." (Chaucer) 4. To wait upon; to supply the wants of; to attend; specifically, to wait upon at table; to attend at meals; to supply with food; as, to serve customers in a shop. "Others, pampered in their shameless pride, Are served in plate and in their chariots ride." (Dryden) 5. Hence, to bring forward, arrange, deal, or distribute, as a portion of anything, especially of food prepared for eating; often with up; formerly with in. "Bid them cover the table, serve in the meat, and we will come in to dinner." (Shak) "Some part he roasts, then serves it up so dressed." (Dryde) 6. To perform the duties belonging to, or required in or for; hence, to be of use to; as, a curate may serve two churches; to serve one's country. 7. To contribute or conduce to; to promote; to be sufficient for; to satisfy; as, to serve one's turn. "Turn it into some advantage, by observing where it can serve another end." (Jer. Taylor) 8. To answer or be (in the place of something) to; as, a sofa serves one for a seat and a couch. 9. To treat; to behave one's self to; to requite; to act toward; as, he served me very ill. 10. To work; to operate; as, to serve the guns. 11. To bring to notice, deliver, or execute, either actually or constructively, in such manner as the law requires; as, to serve a summons. To make legal service opon (a person named in a writ, summons, etc); as, to serve a witness with a subpoena. 12. To pass or spend, as time, especially. Time of punishment; as, to serve a term in prison. 13. To copulate with; to cover; as, a horse serves a mare; said of the male. 14. To lead off in delivering (the ball). 15. To wind spun yarn, or the like, tightly around (a rope or cable, etc) so as to protect it from chafing or from the weather. See Serving. To serve an attachment or a writ of attachment, to read it to the defendant, or to leave an attested copy at his usual place of abode. To serve one out, to retaliate upon; to requite. "I'll serve you out for this." . To serve one right, to treat, or cause to befall one, according to his deserts; used commonly of ill deserts; as, it serves the scoundrel right; To serve one's self of, to avail one's self of; to make use of. "I will serve myself of this concession." (Chillingworth) To serve out, to distribute; as, to serve out rations. To serve the time or the hour, to regulate one's actions by the requirements of the time instead of by one's duty; to be a timeserver. "They think herein we serve the time, because thereby we either hold or seek preferment." (Hooker) Synonym: To obey, minister to, subserve, promote, aid, help, assist, benefit, succor. Origin: OE. Serven, servien, OF. & F. Servir, fr. L. Servire; akin to servus a servant or slave, servare to protect, preserve, observe; cf. Zend har to protect, haurva protecting. Cf. Conserve, Desert merit, Dessert, Observe, Serf, Sergeant. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| Servetus | (ServetServide) Miguel, Spanish anatomist and theologian, 1511-1553. See: Servetus' circulation. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Servetus' circulation | An obsolete eponym for the pulmonary circulation. (05 Mar 2000) |
| service | <botany> A name given to several trees and shrubs of the genus Pyrus, as Pyrus domestica and P. Torminalis of Europe, the various species of mountain ash or rowan tree, and the American shad bush (see Shad bush, under Shad). They have clusters of small, edible, applelike berries. <botany> Service berry, the fruit of any kind of service tree. In British America the name is especially applied to that of the several species or varieties of the shad bush (Amelanchier) Origin: Properly, the tree which bears serve, OE. Serves, pl, service berries, AS. Syrfe service tree; akin to L. Sorbus. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| servile | 1. Of or pertaining to a servant or slave; befitting a servant or a slave; proceeding from dependence; hence, meanly submissive; slavish; mean; cringing; fawning; as, servile flattery; servile fear; servile obedience. "She must bend the servile knee." (Thomson) "Fearing dying pays death servile breath." (Shak) 2. Held in subjection; dependent; enslaved. "Even fortune rules no more, O servile land!" (Pope) 3. Not belonging to the original root; as, a servile letter. Not itself sounded, but serving to lengthen the preceeding vowel, as e in tune. Origin: L. Servile, fr. Servus a servant or slave: cf. F. Servile. See Serve. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| servite | One of the order of the Religious Servants of the Holy Virgin, founded in Florence in 1223. Origin: It. Servita. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| servitude | 1. The state of voluntary or compulsory subjection to a master; the condition of being bound to service; the condition of a slave; slavery; bondage; hence, a state of slavish dependence. "You would have sold your king to slaughter, His princes and his peers to servitude." (Shak) "A splendid servitude; . . . For he that rises up early, and goe to bed late, only to receive addresses, is really as much abridged in his freedom as he that waits to present one." (South) 2. Servants, collectively. "After him a cumbrous train Of herds and flocks, and numerous servitude." (Milton) 3. A right whereby one thing is subject to another thing or person for use or convenience, contrary to the common right. The object of a servitude is either to suffer something to be done by another, or to omit to do something, with respect to a thing. The easements of the English correspond in some respects with the servitudes of the Roman law. Both terms are used by common law writers, and often indiscriminately. The former, however, rather indicates the right enjoyed, and the latter the burden imposed. Penal servitude. See Penal. Personal servitude, that which one estate owes to another estate. When it related to lands, vineyards, gardens, or the like, it is called rural; when it related to houses and buildings, it is called urban. Origin: L. Servitudo: cf. F. Servitude. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| servomechanism | 1. A control system using negative feedback to operate another system. 2. A process that behaves as a self-regulatory device; e.g., the reaction of the pupil to light. Origin: L. Servus, servant, + G. Mechane, contrivance (05 Mar 2000) |