Word.ws English Dictionary

serve out

serve out verb: to win a set, or by extension a match, by holding serve (winning a game as the server).

Verb

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

  1. (transitive) To win a set, or by extension a match, by holding serve (winning a game as the server).
    • She held her nerve after failing to serve out the match at the first attempt, seeing three match points slip by in a nervous service game at 6-4 5-4 and recovering from losing the tie-break to dominate the decider.2011 June 28, Piers Newbery, “Wimbledon 2011: Sabine Lisicki beats Marion Bartoli”, in BBC Sport
  2. (transitive) To serve the whole of some period.
    • The politician did not serve out his term.
  3. (transitive) To deal out or distribute.
    • The waiters served out soup to the guests.
  4. (archaic, transitive) To pay back; to have one's revenge on.
    • 'Yar!' said she, 'you little meddlesome wretch, I have you now! I will serve you out for telling the salmon where I was!'1863, Charles Kingsley, The Water-Babies

Forms of serve out

third-person singular presentserves out
present participleserving out
past participleserved out
pastserved out

Questions about serve out

What does serve out mean?
Serve out means to win a set, or by extension a match, by holding serve (winning a game as the server).
What part of speech is serve out?
Serve out is a verb.
What is the past tense of serve out?
The past tense of serve out is served out.

Words near serve out in the dictionary

  1. serve
  2. serve and volley
  3. serve cunt
  4. serve notice
  5. serve one's time
  6. serve out
  7. serve someone a trick
  8. serve someone right
  9. serve someone the same sauce
  10. serve someone with the same sauce
  11. serve the time

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: serve out (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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