serving
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 →
2) Serving means giving food or drink to people, or working for someone. tree →
3) Serving can describe someone who is working now in an army, team or job, as in «a serving soldier». tree →
4) In sports like tennis, serving is hitting the ball to start a point. tree →
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 →
- One serving of cereal is 30 g. tree →
- The waiter is serving the next table. tree →
- If one serving needs 2 eggs, 5 servings need 10 eggs. tree →
- She is serving for the match in tennis. tree →
- Grandpa was a serving soldier for many years. tree →
- Pass me the serving spoon, please. tree →
- Only his bride, who was serving as cook to her sisters, recognised her lover at once. tree →
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 ...
- "Made the ultimate sacrifice" means died in war while serving one's country.
- "Doing time" means serving a prison sentence.
- From a shared dish you use the serving spoon and take a fair share, and you offer the last piece before taking it.
- Blaming the referee, the equipment or a teammate after losing is a common habit called a self-serving bias.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «serving» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.