Meanings
- uncountableA formal refusal to serve.
In her memoirs, she wrote that she heard him speak, but his words floated away from her; it was as if her brain, already choked by the day's horrors, had issued a non serviam and refused to absorb any more.
2013, Diane Ackerman, The Zookeeper's Wife1 more example
Two months later he issued his notorious non serviam, “A Soldier's Declaration.” He expected to be court-martialed for this, but his friend Robert Graves managed to arrange that he face a medical board instead.
1975, Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory, OUP, published 2013, page 99
Origin
Cite this entry
non serviam. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/non%20serviam
“non serviam.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/non%20serviam. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “non serviam,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/non%20serviam.
Source: non serviam on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.