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be sufficient for; to satisfy; as, to serve one's turn. Turn it into some advantage, by observing where it can serve another end. Jer. Taylor.

The act of serving; the occupation of a servant; the performance of labor for the benefit of another, or at another's command; attendance of an inferior, hired helper. slave, etc., on a superior, employer, master, or the like; also, spiritual obedience and love. "O God . . . whose service is perfect freedom." Bk. of Co…

Not itself sounded, but serving to lengthen the preceeding vowel, as e in tune.

e chief officer of a shire or county, to whom is intrusted the execution of the laws, the serving of judicial writs and processes, and the preservation of the peace.

A set of ropes serving as stays to support the masts. The lower shrouds are secured to the sides of vessels by heavy iron bolts and are passed around the head of the lower masts.

Something serving to indicate the existence, or preserve the memory, of a thing; a token; a memorial; a monument. What time the fire devoured two hundred and fifty men, and they became a sign. Num. xxvi. 10.

Deserving to be considered; important; momentous; as, a significant event. Significant figures (Arith.), the figures which remain to any number, or decimal fraction, after the ciphers at the right or left are canceled. Thus, the significant figures of 25,000, or of .0025, are 25.

A device for determining the refractive state of the eye by observing the movements of the retinal lights and shadows. -- Ski*as"co*py (#), Ski*as"co*py (#), n.

To laugh in the sleeve, to laugh privately or unperceived, especially while apparently preserving a grave or serious demeanor toward the person or persons laughed at; that is, perhaps, originally, by hiding the face in the wide sleeves of former times. -- To pin, or hang, on the sleeve of, to be, or make, dependent up…

A knife with a thin, broad blade for taking up or serving fish; also, a spatula for spreading anything, as paint or ink.

A chimney; esp., a pipe serving as a chimney, as the pipe which carries off the smoke of a locomotive, the funnel of a steam vessel, etc.

The act of serving as a soldier; the state of being a soldier; the occupation of a soldier.

A discourse on health, or the science of promoting and preserving health.

e of others; especially, one who presides over, or speaks for, a delibrative assembly, preserving order and regulating the debates; as, the Speaker of the House of Commons, originally, the mouthpiece of the House to address the king; the Speaker of a House of Representatives.

e in the Bible. To spell out a God in the works of creation. South. To sit spelling and observing divine justice upon every accident. Milton.

ac connected with the female reproductive organs of insects and many other invertebrates, serving to receive and retain the spermatozoa.

Serving to take away, diminish, or rob; esp. (Med.), serving to diminish sensibily the amount of blood in the body; as, spoliative bloodletting.

One of the minute grains in flowerless plants, which are analogous to seeds, as serving to reproduce the species.

A curved piece of timber serving as a half to support the deck where a whole beam can not be placed. Spur fowl (Zoöl.), any one of several species of Asiatic gallinaceous birds of the genus Galloperdix, allied to the jungle fowl. The males have two or more spurs on each leg. -- Spur gear (Mach.), a cogwheel having tee…

A kind of telemeter for measuring the distance of an object of known dimensions, by observing the angle it subtends; especially (Surveying), a graduated rod used to measure the distance of the place where it stands from an instrument having a telescope, by observing the number of the graduations of the rod that are see…