deserved

[ dih-zurvd ]

adjective

1. justly or rightly earned; merited:

   a deserved increase in salary.

Other Words From

• de·serv·ed·ness [dih-, zur, -vid-nis], noun
• half-de·served adjective
• half-de·served·ness noun
• unde·served adjective
• well-de·served adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of deserved¹

First recorded in 1545–55; deserve + -ed ²

Example Sentences

Even the simplest gift card holder will earn you well-deserved bragging rights.

From Popular-Science

With loads of choices, you can go big or small, high-tech or low—but whatever you decide, you’ve now got some of the best baby monitors currently on the market to choose from—so you and your little one can catch some much deserved Z’s.

From Popular-Science

Before you move on to the next story, we’d like to offer some much-deserved props to all PPC pros out there.

From Search Engine Land

LinkedInThe professional networking site gets a reputation for being full of business clichés with no substance from self-help types—and frankly, it’s a little deserved.

From Popular-Science

All of this combined to show Google that Wildgoose was leading the way in the field, and so deserved to rank highly for its new target keywords and queries.

From Search Engine Watch

After the release of the trailer for the special last week, TLC received a requisite and perhaps well-deserved tongue-lashing.

From The Daily Beast

But this was the year when criticism of said women finally got the harsh words it deserved.

From The Daily Beast

He wrote that he deserved to die and alluded to a ominous plan that he had backed out of twice already.

From The Daily Beast

I had to create plays out of necessity, because African women deserved a voice and a place on the stage.

From The Daily Beast

I think the dog deserved to have a little bit of a storyline, so that had as much to do with it as anything.

From The Daily Beast

At length the great Pit Town collection was housed as it deserved to be.

From Project Gutenberg

It was he who deserved punishment—not the sufferer with his calamities imposed upon him by his erring sire.

From Project Gutenberg

But Soult was possessed of a crafty caution which seldom if ever allowed his ambition to hinder the success his ability deserved.

From Project Gutenberg

But Magellan learned of their wicked plot in time to defeat them, and he punished them as they deserved.

From Project Gutenberg

Poor brutes, they deserved a better fate than the cruel method of extinction which Turkish rule administered.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• earned
• proper
• rightful