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# serving

«serving» in Mova's school dictionary: **an amount of food for one person; a portion** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a serving, servings); verb, -ing form of serve (serve, serves, served, serving); adjective (serving)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A serving is an amount of food for one person; a portion. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/serving/#m1)

2) Serving means giving food or drink to people, or working for someone. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/serving/#m2)

3) Serving can describe someone who is working now in an army, team or job, as in «a serving soldier». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/serving/#m3)

4) In sports like tennis, serving is hitting the ball to start a point. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/serving/#m4)

### sense in the lessons

In maths and cooking, a recipe «makes 6 servings» — divide or multiply ingredients by the number of servings. On food labels, «per serving» gives the calories in one portion. In everyday life waiters are serving food. Phrases: per serving, a serving of, serving dish, serving spoon, serving time (in prison).

### examples

- This cake recipe makes 8 servings. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/serving/#x1)
- One serving of cereal is 30 g. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/serving/#x2)
- The waiter is serving the next table. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/serving/#x3)
- If one serving needs 2 eggs, 5 servings need 10 eggs. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/serving/#x4)
- She is serving for the match in tennis. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/serving/#x5)
- Grandpa was a serving soldier for many years. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/serving/#x6)
- Pass me the serving spoon, please. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/serving/#x7)
- Only his bride, who was serving as cook to her sisters, recognised her lover at once. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/serving/#x8)

### note

As a noun it is countable: a serving, two servings. «Serving» and «portion» mean nearly the same. On food labels, per serving and per 100 g are different, a common trap. In maths, total amount = amount per serving × number of servings.

### In the corpora

- [The poem: "I keep six honest serving-men ...](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/80-justso-elephants-child-2/18/)
- ["Made the ultimate sacrifice" means died in war while serving one's country.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/3-death-and-feeling-poorly/16/)
- ["Doing time" means serving a prison sentence.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/euphemisms/27-crime-prison-and-police/9/)
- [From a shared dish you use the serving spoon and take a fair share, and you offer the last piece before taking it.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/everyday/127-excuse-me-and-table-manners/17/)
- [Blaming the referee, the equipment or a teammate after losing is a common habit called a self-serving bias.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/67-losing-well-and-winning-well/7/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «serving» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/serving/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.