serve notice

Verb

serve notice (third-person singular simple present serves notice, present participle serving notice, simple past and past participle served notice)

1. To officially give a legal notice to.
   • One who desires to assert his right to the possession of a horse by virtue of his lien must ascertain the real owner and serve notice on him.1894, Leonard Augustus Jones, A Treatise on the Law of Liens, Common Law, Statutory, Equitable and Maritime, →ISBN

   Synonyms:

   let go, sack

2. To warn or announce.
   • Those same philosophy articles then immediately serve notice that, for simplicity, they will discuss only belief.2000, Nalini Bhushan, Stuart Rosenfeld, Of Minds and Molecules: New Philosophical Perspectives on Chemistry, →ISBN
3. (idiomatic) To fire; to terminate one's employment or formal association.
   • "One white man." said Bill, after a brief inspection. "Out on his line, I s'pose, and there's no tellin' when he'll be back. So we won't wait. We'll just serve notice on him."1922, A. M. Chisholm, A Thousand a Plate

   Synonyms:

   axe