serve a purpose

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.

Example Sentences

"I just see that great massive cost and it is not going to serve a purpose because after seven years, no learning can come out of that now," she said.

From BBC

Boundaries are necessary and hierarchies serve a purpose, but creativity depends on flexibility.

From Los Angeles Times

What started to resurface were the times when I felt truly and enduringly at peace, the way lifestyle minimalism promises you’re supposed to feel when you’ve gotten rid of everything in your house that doesn’t serve a purpose, or when the pile of tote bags taking up real estate in your dresser disappears.

From Los Angeles Times

Still, they serve a purpose, I think.

From New York Times

And while old records can't yet be recycled into new ones, that doesn't mean they can't serve a purpose once we're done with them.

From BBC