Word.ws English Dictionary

serving two masters

serving two masters is the present participle and gerund of serve two masters.

Meaning of serve two masters

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To take orders from two superiors or two conflicting parties.
    • I suspect that Mr Paisley would have been familiar with the biblical quotation: "No man can serve two masters - you cannot serve God and Mammon" (Matthew 6 v 24).2017 September 1, “Paisley faltered in bid to serve two masters”, in Belfast Telegraph

Questions about serving two masters

What is serving two masters the present participle and gerund of?
Serving two masters is the present participle and gerund of serve two masters.

Words near serving two masters in the dictionary

  1. serving suggestion
  2. serving suggestions
  3. serving the time
  4. serving the turn
  5. serving time
  6. serving two masters
  7. serving up
  8. serving with the colors
  9. serving with the colours
  10. serving-spoonful
  11. serving-spoonfuls

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: serving two masters (page history and authors); serve two masters (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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