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Synonyms

subserve

American  
[suhb-surv] / səbˈsɜrv /

verb (used with object)

  • subserves,
    present (3rd person singular)
  • subserved,
    past participle,  past
  • subserving
    present participle
  1. to be useful or instrumental in promoting (a purpose, action, etc.).

    Light exercise subserves digestion.

  2. Obsolete. to serve as a subordinate.


subserve British  
/ səbˈsɜːv /

verb

  1. to be helpful or useful to

  2. obsolete to be subordinate to

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

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

Because your father has trained Orlean to obey and subserve to his will, he has done something to her, and she has become a demon instead of a weakling.

From The Homesteader A Novel by Oscar Micheaux

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

He thought that vowels can be as skilfully combined and interchanged as differing notes of music, and that monotony should only be allowed when it subserves some special purpose.

From Life of John Keats by William Michael Rossetti

It may be laid down as a general rule that the policy which best subserves the interests of the patrons of a road is always the best policy for its owners.

From The Railroad Question A historical and practical treatise on railroads, and remedies for their abuses by William Larrabee

It is no longer a restless agent, without definite aim; it has a large field of exertion assigned to it, and it subserves those social interests which it would naturally trouble.

From The Idea of a University Defined and Illustrated: In Nine Discourses Delivered to the Catholics of Dublin by John Henry Newman

If any thing new is furnished that shall also prove interesting, the end will be subserved.

From Bugle Blasts Read before the Ohio Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States by William E. Crane

In brief, unless some special purpose is subserved thereby, an audience should not long be left in the dark as to the form in which the dramatist thinks he has cast his play.

From Dramatic Technique by George Pierce Baker

WELFARE, public, subserved by passage of Freedmen's Bureau Bill, 149.

From History of the Thirty-Ninth Congress of the United States by William Horatio Barnes

It is the same which is subserved by the quivering of the leaves of trees.

From Flower, Fruit, and Thorn Pieces; or, the Wedded Life, Death, and Marriage of Firmian Stanislaus Siebenkaes, Parish Advocate in the Burgh of Kuhschnappel. by Jean Paul

Upon the whole, it must be insisted that religious belief has subserved a large purpose in the economy of human progress.

From History of Human Society by Frank W. (Frank Wilson) Blackmar

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

The first germs of science were very simple, existing in connection with Art, and subserving the purposes of priestcraft.

From The Continental Monthly, Vol. 3, No. 1 January 1863 Devoted To Literature And National Policy by Various

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 A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents Volume 6, part 2: Andrew Johnson by James D. (James Daniel) Richardson

So, doubtless, when beneath thy potence swerving,  'Tis that thou lead'st us by a path unknown, Our seeming deviations all subserving  The perfect orbit round the central throne.

From An Anthology of Australian Verse by Bertram Stevens

Its repeated occurrence in Mr. Arnold's pages is but another instance of poetic feeling subserving the ends of criticism.

From Views and Reviews by Henry James

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