service

Etymology 1

From Middle English servise, from Old French servise (French service), from the verb servir, from Latin servitium (compare Portuguese serviço, Italian servizio, Norman sèrvice, Spanish servicio), from servus (“servant; serf; slave”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ser-wo-s (“guardian”), possibly from *ser- (“watch over, protect”). Displaced native Old English þeġnung.

noun

1. An act of being of assistance to someone.
   I say I did him a service by ending our relationship – now he can freely pursue his career.
   Then he commenced to talk, really talk. and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show. He talked about the ills of humanity, and the glories of health and Nature and service and land knows what all. 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 4, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
2. (economics) The practice of providing such a service as economic activity.
   Hair care is a service industry.
   The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you "stay up to date with what your friends are doing",…and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention. 2013-06-21, Oliver Burkeman, “The tao of tech”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 27
3. (business) Synonym of utility (“commodity provided on a continuous basis by a physical infrastructure network, such as electricity, water supply or sewerage”).
4. A department in a company, organization, or institution.
5. (computing) A function that is provided by one program or machine for another.
   This machine provides the name service for the LAN.
6. The state of being subordinate to or employed by an individual or group
   Lancelot was at the service of King Arthur.
7. The military.
   I did three years in the service before coming here.
8. A set of dishes or utensils.
   She brought out the silver tea service.
   When their lavish fiestas ended they threw the silver service and even golden vessels from their balconies to be picked up by lucky passersby. 1997, Eduardo Galeano, Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent, Monthly Review Press, page 36
9. (sports) The act of initially starting, or serving, the ball in play in tennis, volleyball, and other games.
   The player had four service faults in the set.
10. A religious rite or ritual.
    The funeral service was touching.
11. (law) The serving, or delivery, of a summons or writ.
    He Suſpends on theſe Reaſons, that Thomas Rue had granted a general Diſcharge to Adam Muſhet, who was his Conjunct, and correus debendi, after the alleadged Service, which Diſcharged Muſhet, and conſequently Houstoun his Partner. 1668 July 3, James Dalrymple, “Thomas Rue contra Andrew Houſtoun” in The Deciſions of the Lords of Council & Seſſion I (Edinburgh, 1683), page 548
    The service happened yesterday.
12. (Israel, West Bank, also in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria) A taxi shared among unrelated passengers, each of whom pays part of the fare; often, it has a fixed route between cities.
13. A musical composition for use in churches.
14. (obsolete) Profession of respect; acknowledgment of duty owed.
15. (nautical) The materials used for serving a rope, etc., such as spun yarn and small lines.
16. Access to resources such as hotel rooms and Web-based videos without transfer of the resources' ownership.

verb

1. (transitive) To serve.
   1. (transitive) To perform maintenance.
      He is going to service the car.
   2. (public relations, transitive) To supply (media outlets) with press releases etc.
      One obvious way is press releases, which should be sent to your region's reporters, editors and columnists, the wire services, professional publications. […] Servicing the media should be an everyday thing. 1977, Patricia Marshall, Citizen Participation Certification for Community Development, page 107
      […] instead of expending so much of their PR effort on servicing the media. 1971, College and University Journal, volumes 10-11, page 9
2. (transitive, agriculture, euphemistic) To inseminate through sexual intercourse.
3. (transitive, vulgar) To perform a sexual act upon.
   He serviced her several times a week.
4. (transitive, military, euphemistic) To attack.
   to service a target; target servicing

Etymology 2

Properly, the tree that bears sorb fruit, from Middle English serves, plural of serve (“sorb apple, serviceberry”), from Old English syrfe, from Vulgar Latin *sorbea, from Latin sorbus (“service tree”). See sorb.

noun

1. Service tree.
2. The sorb; the fruit of this tree.