Past tense of deserve
regular verb
The past tense of deserve is deserved. The past participle is also deserved.
Forms of deserve
| Base form (V1) | deserve /dɪˈzɜːv/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | deserved /dɪˈzɜːvd/ |
| Past participle (V3) | deserved /dɪˈzɜːvd/ |
| Present participle | deserving /dɪˈzɝvɪŋ/ |
| Third person singular | deserves |
Deserved in a sentence
- After playing so well, the team really deserved their win.
- After what he did, he deserved to go to prison.
- Floris grumpily yammered on about how the actors hardly deserved to be plaudited.From the entry plaudit
- The farmers had to revolt against the government to get what they deserved.From the entry revolt
- Your lecture deserved a much better reception than it got. Pearls before swine!From the entry pearls before swine
Meaning of deserve
- verb To be entitled to, as a result of past actions; to be worthy to have.
- verb To earn, win.
- verb To reward, to give in return for service.
Questions about the past tense of deserve
- What is the past tense of deserve?
- The past tense of deserve is deserved.
- What is the past participle of deserve?
- The past participle of deserve is deserved.
- Is deserve a regular or irregular verb?
- Deserve is a regular verb: its past tense adds -d.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: deserve (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “Past tense of deserve.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/deserve. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.