service

[[t]sɜ͟ː(r)vɪs[/t]]

♦

services, servicing, serviced

(For meaning 14, services is both the singular and the plural form.)

1) N-COUNT: usu with supp A service is something that the public needs, such as transport, communications facilities, hospitals, or energy supplies, which is provided in a planned and organized way by the government or an official body.

Britain still boasts the cheapest postal service...

We have started a campaign for better nursery and school services...

The authorities have said they will attempt to maintain essential services.

2) N-COUNT: oft in names You can sometimes refer to an organization or private company as a particular service when it provides something for the public or acts on behalf of the government.

All these changes follow months of negotiations between the BBC and the Foreign Office, which provides the money for the World Service.

...Careers Advisory Services.

3) N-COUNT If an organization or company provides a particular service, they can do a particular job or a type of work for you.

The kitchen maintains a twenty-four hour service and can be contacted via Reception...

The larger firm was capable of providing a better range of services.

4) N-PLURAL Services are activities such as tourism, banking, and selling things which are part of a country's economy, but are not concerned with producing or manufacturing goods.

Mining rose by 9.1%, manufacturing by 9.4% and services by 4.3%.

...the doctrine that a highly developed service sector was the sign of a modern economy.

5) N-UNCOUNT The level or standard of service provided by an organization or company is the amount or quality of the work it can do for you.

Taking risks is the only way employees can provide effective and efficient customer service...

The current level of service will be maintained except that the evening `Network Express' trains will be withdrawn.

6) N-COUNT: usu n N A bus or train service is a route or regular journey that is part of a transport system.

A bus service operates between Bolton and Salford.

7) N-PLURAL: with poss Your services are the things that you do or the skills that you use in your job, which other people find useful and are usually willing to pay you for.

I have obtained the services of a top photographer to take our pictures...

The performers have all offered their services free of charge.

8) N-UNCOUNT: also N in pl, oft N to n If you refer to someone's service or services to a particular organization or activity, you mean that they have done a lot of work for it or spent a lot of their time on it.

You've given a lifetime of service to athletics...

More than half his long service in parliament has been as a cabinet minister.

...the two policemen, who have a total of 31 years' service between them...

He was awarded the OBE in 1990 for services to fashion.

9) N-COUNT: usu pl The Services are the army, the navy, and the air force.

In June 1945, Britain still had forty-five per cent of its workforce in the Services and munitions industries.

10) N-UNCOUNT Service is the work done by people or equipment in the army, navy, or air force, for example during a war.

The regiment was recruited from the Highlands specifically for service in India.

...an aircraft carrier that saw service in World War II.

11) N-UNCOUNT When you receive service in a restaurant, hotel, or shop, an employee asks you what you want or gives you what you have ordered.

A five-course meal including coffee, service and VAT is ₤30.

...clean stores with respectful service and fair prices.

12) N-COUNT: also no det A service is a religious ceremony that takes place in a church.

After the hour-long service, his body was taken to a cemetery in the south of the city.

...the church in which the President was attending morning service.

13) N-COUNT: usu n N A dinner service or a tea service is a complete set of plates, cups, saucers, and other pieces of china.

...a 60-piece dinner service.

14) N-COUNT A services is a place beside a motorway where you can buy petrol and other things, or have a meal. [BRIT]

They had to pull up, possibly go to a motorway services or somewhere like that...

We have repeatedly told planners that services are vital on a motorway like the M40.

Syn:

service station

(in AM, use rest area)

15) N-COUNT: oft with poss In tennis, badminton, and some other sports, when it is your service, it is your turn to serve.

She conceded just three points on her service during the first set.

16) ADJ: ADJ n Service is used to describe the parts of a building or structure that are used by the staff who clean, repair, or look after it, and are not usually used by the public.

He wheeled the trolley down the corridor and disappeared with it into the service lift.

...the bigger tunnels, which run either side of the service tunnel.

17) N-UNCOUNT: oft in/into N If someone is in service, they are working as a servant.

If a young woman did not have a dowry, she went into domestic service.

18) VERB If you have a vehicle or machine serviced, you arrange for someone to examine, adjust, and clean it so that it will keep working efficiently and safely.

[have n V-ed] ...if you had had your car serviced at the local garage...

[be V-ed] Make sure that all gas fires and central heating boilers are serviced annually. [Also V n]

N-COUNT: usu sing, oft N n

Service is also a noun.

The car needs a service... The company sends a service engineer to fix the disk drive before it fails.

19) VERB If a country or organization services its debts, it pays the interest on them.

[V n] Almost a quarter of the country's export earnings go to service a foreign debt of $29 billion.

20) VERB If someone or something services an organization, a project, or a group of people, they provide it with the things that it needs in order to function properly or effectively.

[V n] There are now 400 staff at headquarters, servicing our regional and overseas work...

[V n] Fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas will service our needs for some considerable time to come.

21) → See also , Civil Service, , emergency services, , National Health Service, , public service, room service

22) PHRASE: PHR n, usu PHR after v To be at the service of a person or organization means to be available to help or be used by that person or organization.

The intellectual and moral potential of the world's culture must be put at the service of politics.

23) CONVENTION (formulae) You can use `at your service' after your name as a formal way of introducing yourself to someone and saying that you are willing to help them in any way you can.

She bowed dramatically. `Anastasia Krupnik, at your service,' she said.

24) PHRASE: V inflects If you do someone a service, you do something that helps or benefits them.

You are doing me a great service, and I'm very grateful to you...

`You don't feel that you've betrayed your country?' - `Not at all, I think I've done a service to my country.'

25) PHRASE: usu PHR after v, v-link PHR If a piece of equipment or type of vehicle is in service, it is being used or is able to be used. If it is out of service, it is not being used, usually because it is not working properly.

Cuts in funding have meant that equipment has been kept in service long after it should have been replaced...

In 1882, London's first electric tram cars went into service...

Some two hundred obsolete warships and submarines have been taken out of service during the past five years.

26) PHRASE: v-link PHR, oft PHR to n If someone or something is of service to you, they help you or are useful to you.

That is, after all, the primary reason we live - to be of service to others.

27) be pressed into service → see press