deserve
Pronunciation
  • (RP) IPA: /dɪˈzɜːv/
  • (America) IPA: /dɪˈzɝv/
Verb

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.
Synonyms Related terms Translations


This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.014
Offline English dictionary