service

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?

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:

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.

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

An act of being of assistance to someone.

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.’

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

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

Thank you for your service.

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

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.

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

(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”).

utility

A department in a company, organization, or institution.

This machine provides the name service for the LAN.

(computing) A function that is provided by one program or machine for another.

the service

I did three years in the service before coming here.

en:a specific military, countable, with definite article

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.

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

The player had four service faults in the set.

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

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.

1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

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.

1668 July 3, James Dalrymple, “Thomas Rue contra Andrew Houſtoun” in The Deciſions of the Lords of Council & Seſſion I (Edinburgh, 1683), page 548

The service happened yesterday.

(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.

West Bank; Lebanon and Syria; West Bank; Lebanon and Syria

A musical composition for use in churches.

Pray, do my service to his majesty.

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]:

(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.

en-noun

service (countable and uncountable, plural services)

diens

practice of providing services as economic activity

服務

computing: function provided by one program or machine for another

се́рвис

sports: act of initially serving the ball

servizo

profession of respect; acknowledgment of duty owed

tarvikkeet

nautical: materials used for serving a rope

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.


service

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

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

He is going to service the car.

(transitive) To serve.
(transitive) To perform maintenance.

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.

1977, Patricia Marshall, Citizen Participation Certification for Community Development, page 107:

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

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

(public relations, transitive) To supply (media outlets) with press releases etc.

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.

2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 28:07 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?, archived from the original on 2022-11-03:

(transitive, agriculture, euphemistic) To inseminate through sexual intercourse.

He serviced her several times a week.

(transitive, vulgar) To perform a sexual act upon.

to service a target; target servicing

(transitive, military, euphemistic) To attack.

en-verb

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

services (present singular third-person)
servicing (participle present)
serviced (participle past)
serviced (past)

→ Dutch: service

→ Indonesian: servis

→ German: Service

→ Hindustani

Hindi: सर्विस (sarvis)

Urdu: سروس (sarvis)

→ Hungarian: szerviz

→ Japanese: サービス (sābisu)

→ Korean: 서비스 (seobiseu)

→ Persian:

Dari: سرویس (sarwīs)

→ Russian: сервис (servis)

→ Ukrainian: сервіс (servis)


service

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.