subserve
Americanverb (used with object)
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to be useful or instrumental in promoting (a purpose, action, etc.).
Light exercise subserves digestion.
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Obsolete. to serve as a subordinate.
verb
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to be helpful or useful to
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obsolete to be subordinate to
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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subservesimple
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subservessimple
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have subservedperfect
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has subservedperfect
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am subservingprogressive
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are subservingprogressive
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is subservingprogressive
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have been subservingperfect progressive
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has been subservingperfect progressive
Past
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subservedsimple
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had subservedperfect
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was subservingprogressive
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were subservingprogressive
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had been subservingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of subserve
1610–20; < Latin subservīre, equivalent to sub- sub- + servīre to serve
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
These auditory and reward network pathways likely subserve the mind’s ability to form predictions and expectations during music listening.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 18, 2021
Resting-state fMRI has shown that brain networks that subserve motor and even cognitive functions like language, memory and emotion are continuously and dynamically active in the resting brain.
From Scientific American ● Aug. 7, 2017
In a paper published in The Lancet in February 1916, he posited a “physical or chemical change and a break in the links of the chain of neurons which subserve a particular function.”
From New York Times ● Jun. 10, 2016
Some years before, Artist Robinson had concluded that the only excuse for painting was to subserve architecture and had applied himself to that problem.
From Time Magazine Archive
Many Tropic Responses Apparently Purposeful.—The query arises as to why if these responses are mechanical they are so often apparently purposive; that is, why do they so often subserve some useful end for the animal?
From Being Well-Born An Introduction to Eugenics by Guyer, Michael F.
If translated to humans, these findings have important implications for understanding how the hippocampus subserves various cognitive functions that rely on it, such as episodic memory, navigation and imagination.
From Scientific American ● Jun. 3, 2013
It simply subserves, extends, illuminates and liberates Shakespeare's poem.
From Time Magazine Archive
"Few things escape my knowledge which it subserves my interest to know," returned he.
From Eventide A Series of Tales and Poems by Afton, Effie
That it subserves morality we see from the "Republic," where only that poetry is allowed which inculcates virtue, and only because it inculcates virtue.
From A Critical History of Greek Philosophy by Stace, W. T. (Walter Terence)
Pain here, at any rate, so far from being purposeless, owes its existence to the purpose which it subserves.
From Gloria Crucis addresses delivered in Lichfield Cathedral Holy Week and Good Friday, 1907 by Beibitz, J. H. (Joseph Hugh)
It is noticeable that these decisions have been made only when the interests of these corporations were to be subserved.
From Monopolies and the People by Cloud, D. C.
The magnification of the image reminds us of the second purpose which is subserved by a telescope.
From Pleasures of the telescope An Illustrated Guide for Amateur Astronomers and a Popular Description of the Chief Wonders of the Heavens for General Readers by Serviss, Garrett Putman
As soon as the public service ceases to be subserved the offices should at once cease.
From The Galaxy, June 1877 Vol. XXIII.—June, 1877.—No. 6. by Various
Its function, the end it subserved, determined its value for society—determined whether public opinion should approve or disapprove of it, whether it was a god of the community or the fetich of an individual.
From An Introduction to the Study of Comparative Religion by Jevons, F. B. (Frank Byron)
Neither art, taste, nor religion is in any way subserved by these unequalled follies.
From Foot-prints of Travel or, Journeyings in Many Lands by Ballou, Maturin Murray
Considering the hugging behavior and similar part of the gene, the authors say there’s evidence that “the neural mechanisms subserving social behaviors exist in O. bimaculoides.”
From Washington Post ● Sep. 20, 2018
If it should prove otherwise, Congress can, at any time, amend those laws in such manner as, while subserving the public welfare, not to jeopard the rights, interests, and liberties of the people.
From History of the Thirty-Ninth Congress of the United States by Barnes, William Horatio
Clearly all that I could do was to invite them to enter on the same road, myself only subserving the humble functions of a signpost.
From Books Condemned to be Burnt by Farrer, James Anson
But De Fleuri, like almost every one in the community I believe, had his own private schemes subserving the general good.
From Robert Falconer by MacDonald, George
And if some accuse me of subserving the cause of Catholic reaction, others perhaps, the official Catholics....
From Tragic Sense Of Life by Flitch, J. E. Crawford (John Ernest Crawford)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
