Word.ws English Dictionary

serve someone right

serve someone right verb: of an unpleasant event, to happen to someone who is thought to deserve it.

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) Of an unpleasant event, to happen to someone who is thought to deserve it.
    • What, now he wishes he hadn't voted for the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party? Serves him right!
    • "And they counts my money and tickets, when I gets home, to see if I's got the change; and if I han't they half kills me."
      "And serves you right," said Jane, the pert chambermaid, "if you will take their money to get drunk on."1851 June – 1852 April, Harriet Beecher Stowe, “Chapter XVIII”, in Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life among the Lowly, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), Boston, Mass.: John P[unchard] Jewett &...
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see serve, right.
    • If my memory serves me right, we had a similar discussion a few months ago.

serve someone right meaning in Arabic and Thai

serve someone right in Arabic

serves you right!
يخدم لكم الحق

serve someone right in Thai

serves you right!
สมน้ำหน้า sǒm-nám-nâa

Forms of serve someone right

third-person singular presentserves someone right
present participleserving someone right
past participleserved someone right
pastserved someone right

Questions about serve someone right

What does serve someone right mean?
Serve someone right means of an unpleasant event, to happen to someone who is thought to deserve it.
What is serve someone right in Arabic?
Serve someone right in Arabic is يخدم لكم الحق. See Serve someone right meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is serve someone right?
Serve someone right is a verb.
What is the past tense of serve someone right?
The past tense of serve someone right is served someone right.

Words near serve someone right in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: serve someone right (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-serve someone right.ogg.

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