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

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.”

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Beijing’s climate pledges are often dismissed as meaningless, but they serve a purpose: helping Chinese companies secure access to Europe’s market.

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"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.

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

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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.

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