• (RP) IPA: /dɪˈzɜːv/
• (America) IPA: /dɪˈzɝv/

deserve (deserves, present participle deserving; past and past participle deserved)

1. (transitive) To be entitled to, as a result of past actions; to be worthy to have.

   After playing so well, the team really deserved their win.

   After what he did, he deserved to go to prison.

   This argument deserves a closer examination.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981 ↗, Job 11:6 ↗:

     God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth.

   • John Gay deserved to be a favourite.

2. (obsolete) To earn, win.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.vii:

     That gentle Lady, whom I loue and serue, / After long suit and weary seruicis, / Did aske me, how I could her loue deserue, / And how she might be sure, that I would neuer swerue.

3. (obsolete) To reward, to give in return for service.
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/MaloryWks2/1:10.30?rgn=div2;view=fulltext chapter xxx], in Le Morte Darthur, book VIII:

     Gramercy saide the kynge / & I lyue sir Lambegus I shal deserue hit / And thenne sir Lambegus armed hym / and rode after as fast as he myghte

   • 1603?, William Shakespeare, Othello:

     quote en

4. (obsolete) To serve; to treat; to benefit.

   • A man that hath / So well deserved me.

• merit
• See also Thesaurus:deserve

• desert
• serve somebody right

• French: mériter
• German: verdienen
• Italian: meritare, meritarsi
• Portuguese: merecer
• Russian: заслу́живать
• Spanish: merecer, meritar