Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To be worthy of; merit. See Synonyms at earn1.
- v. To be worthy or deserving.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To merit; be worthy of; incur, as something either desirable or undesirable, on account of good or bad qualities or actions; more especially, to have a just claim or right to, in return for services or meritorious actions; be justly entitled to, as wages or a prize.
- To serve or treat well; benefit.
- To repay by service; return an equivalent for (service rendered).
- To require; demand the attention of.
- To merit; be worthy or deserving: as, he deserves well of his country.
Wiktionary
- v. To be entitled to, as a result of past actions; to be worthy to have.
- v. obsolete To earn, win.
- v. obsolete To reward, to give in return for service.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To earn by service; to be worthy of (something due, either good or evil); to merit; to be entitled to
- v. obsolete To serve; to treat; to benefit.
- v. To be worthy of recompense; -- usually with
ill or withwell .
WordNet 3.0
- v. be worthy or deserving
Etymologies
- From Old French deservir, from Latin dēservīre, from de- + servīre. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English deserven, from Old French deservir, from Latin dēservīre, to serve zealously : dē-, intensive pref.; see de- + servīre, to serve; see serve. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“None deserve the fair but the _brave_ [_deserve the fair_."] "They postpone the thing which [_they ought to do, and do not] but_ which [_thing_] they cannot avoid purposing to do.”
“To say that evangelical Christians believe that non-evangelicals deserve to suffer and die is like saying that people who sell life and disability insurance believe that those who don’t follow their advice to buy insurance *deserve* to suffer and live in penury and/or have their families suffer and live in penury if they die or become disabled.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » HRW’s Whitson Defends Fundraising in Totalitarian Countries:
“Chris is a fine chap and a fine journo who has done wonders with the dusty old left-wing mag over the past few years, and his efforts to save the title deserve to succeed.”
“Mr. Porter insisted upon finishing the Little Chicken series, so that 'deserve' is a poor word for any honour that might accrue to him for his part in the book.”
Gene Stratton-Porter: A Little Story of The Life and Work and Ideals of "The Bird Woman"
“But this just goes to show you that in order to be a respected black man you must be submissive and wait your turn to get the respect you rightfully deserve from a white man, till whenever the white man gets comfortable enough to give it to you.”
“You want us to get what we deserve from the legislature?”
“Someone needs to remind this bozo that the "up-and-down" economy that we don't deserve is the direct result of the last republican president's inability to deal with the looming financial crisis of 2008.”
“I suspect the appropriate answer for a true bibliophile, someone who gives books as physical objects the full love and respect they deserve, is Bookmark.”
“FMA President Patricia Niehaus said Carolyn has dedicated herself to improving the quality of services the American people expect and deserve from the Environmental Protection Agency.”
“What you deserve is to be completely ignored by every rational thinking person on here.”
Think Progress » CNN poll: 47 percent of Americans want to repeal health care reform.
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘deserve’.
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POL - What is Mitt talking about?
Key terms from Mitt Romney's election campaign
good and generous..., hard fought election, go back to work, optimistic and po..., confident in the ..., optimism, uniquely American, nation of immigrants, want a better life, life in that plac..., pursuit of the ri..., richness of this ... and 369 more...
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POL - campaign tokenisms
Positive words and vague promises. THE words and expressions to use when you want to win over the masses or just don't know what to say.
"CAPITAL" stands for the administrative capital...grow, greatest country, greatest, grow the economy, great nation, great decisions, great, government, great NATIONAL su..., good times, good job, good and generous... and 751 more...
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[Open] Stative Verbs
Definition Many of these can also be dynamic.
Please just list bare infinitives to keep the list wieldy. Perhaps a tag (e.g., “stative”) would be sufficient for participles.)act, amaze, appear, appreciate, astonish, become, believe, belong, cost, feel, get, hate and 53 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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Monovocalics
Words that have only one of the vowels. On this list I include only words with at least three vowels. When I first started the list, if a word had several forms, I generally listed only the one wit...
syzygy, mirific, cumulus, homolog, monocot, bedewed, jezebel, referee, bikini, minikin, locomotor, terebenthene and 2359 more...
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parallax's Words
peppered, submarine, ascertain, spiffy, pretty, incredible, deserve, admire, admirals, general, generally
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Words I detest
irregardless, myriad, awesome, random, premium, deserve, inappropriate, obscene, biased, cabal, eschew, firmament and 13 more...
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the things that you do
relate, immure, resemble, brighten, lighten, darken, magnify, anticipate, illuminate, fly, hesitate, accept and 74 more...
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Usually forgotten
the words which i forget most of the time when in a conversation
quality time, transvestite, deliberate, instinctive, conscious, antics, abundant, generous, offensive, tangible, scandalize, observation and 8 more...
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Words for Summer
Words I have used to describe Summer on her envelopes.
impavid, beautiful, sybaritic, inamorata, Synergistic, coadjuvant, munificent, mellifluous, magnanimous, jocund, solicitous, propitious and 8 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for deserve.
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