subserve

present singular third person subserves · participle present subserving · participle past subserved · past subserved

1. To be subservient to.

   Ah, if only he had asked her to subserve him, to be his slave!

   1921, DH Lawrence, Women in Love, Vintage, published 2008, page 288

2. To serve to promote (an end); to be useful to.

   Their principles will cease to be dear to them, whenever they shall cease to subserve the purposes of good order.

   1840, Abel Upshur, A Brief Enquiry into the Nature and Character of our Federal Government, Campbell, page 69

   2 more examples

   Calculating by spherical trigonometry, and assuming the same obliquity, I obtain 3 dundas and 40 pulas for the ascensional arc, giving a difference in time of 3 pulas, or about one of our minutes; an error so small, that even were the Indian astronomer aware of its existence he would disregard it, satisfied that the practical purposes which his labours subserve, are, notwithstanding, carried out with sufficient accuracy.

   1839 October, J.J. Middleton, “Description of an Astronomical Instrument presented by Raja Ram Sing, of Khota, to the Government of India”, in Journal of the Asiatic Society, volume 8, number 94, page 837

   '[…] Human laws we respect—ha, ha!—you and I, because they subserve our convenience, and just so long. When they tend to our destruction, 'tis, of course, another thing.'

   1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard

3. To assist in carrying out.

   'Tis a greater credit to know the ways of captivating Nature, and making her subserve our purposes, than to have learnt all the intrigues of policy.

   1665, Joseph Glanvill, Scepsis Scientifica: Or, Confest Ignorance, the Way to Science; […], London: […] E. C[otes] for Henry Eversden […], →OCLC

   1 more example

   The unlearned capacities that underpin language acquisition constitute a uniquely human complex of non-linguistic dispositions and mechanisms that also subserve other cognitive functions.

   2011 September 21, Barbara C. Scholz, Francis Jeffry Pelletier, Geoffrey K. Pullum, Ryan Nefdt, “Philosophy of Linguistics”, in Edward N. Zalta, Uri Nodelman, editors, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, →ISSN, retrieved 18 Jun 2025