serve a purpose

Idioms  

1. Also,. Be useful, meet the needs or requirements, satisfy, as in I don't know why they've added all this information but it probably serves a purpose, or It often serves his purpose to be vague, or We don't have a spading fork but this shovel should serve the purpose. This idiom was first recorded in 1513.

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Example Sentences

If the new guidelines were implemented, Furay estimated that the department would destroy about 11.8 million body-worn videos that no longer serve a purpose.

From Los Angeles Times

"Dupes will serve a purpose," he says.

From BBC

The word mottainai, for instance, roughly translates to “profound regret over discarding or wasting something that could still serve a purpose.”

From The Wall Street Journal

That’s OK if they all serve a purpose.

From MarketWatch

According to Ranjay Gulati, a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, courageous leaders “take bold, risky action to serve a purpose that they perceive to be worthy, usually in the face of an abiding fear.”

From The Wall Street Journal