(~s, servicing, ~d)
Frequency: The word is one of the 700 most common words in English.
Note: For meaning 14, '~s' is both the singular and the plural form.
1.
A ~ is something that the public needs, such as transport, communications facilities, hospitals, or energy supplies, which is provided in a planned and organized way by the government or an official body.
Britain still boasts the cheapest postal ~...
We have started a campaign for better nursery and school ~s...
The authorities have said they will attempt to maintain essential ~s.
N-COUNT: usu with supp
2.
You can sometimes refer to an organization or private company as a particular ~ when it provides something for the public or acts on behalf of the government.
...the BBC World Service.
...Careers Advisory Services.
N-COUNT: oft in names
3.
If an organization or company provides a particular ~, they can do a particular job or a type of work for you.
The kitchen maintains a twenty-four hour ~ and can be contacted via Reception...
The larger firm was capable of providing a better range of ~s.
N-COUNT
4.
Services are activities such as tourism, banking, and selling things which are part of a country’s economy, but are not concerned with producing or manufacturing goods.
Mining rose by 9.1%, manufacturing by 9.4% and ~s by 4.3%.
N-PLURAL
5.
The level or standard of ~ provided by an organization or company is the amount or quality of the work it can do for you.
Taking risks is the only way employees can provide effective and efficient customer ~...
N-UNCOUNT
6.
A bus or train ~ is a route or regular journey that is part of a transport system.
A bus ~ operates between Bolton and Salford.
N-COUNT: usu n N
7.
Your ~s are the things that you do or the skills that you use in your job, which other people find useful and are usually willing to pay you for.
I have obtained the ~s of a top photographer to take our pictures...
N-PLURAL: with poss
8.
If you refer to someone’s ~ or ~s to a particular organization or activity, you mean that they have done a lot of work for it or spent a lot of their time on it.
You’ve given a lifetime of ~ to athletics...
...the two policemen, who have a total of 31 years’ ~ between them...
N-UNCOUNT: also N in pl, oft N to n
9.
The Services are the army, the navy, and the air force.
In June 1945, Britain still had forty-five per cent of its workforce in the Services and munitions industries.
N-COUNT: usu pl
10.
Service is the work done by people or equipment in the army, navy, or air force, for example during a war.
The regiment was recruited from the Highlands specifically for ~ in India.
N-UNCOUNT
11.
When you receive ~ in a restaurant, hotel, or shop, an employee asks you what you want or gives you what you have ordered.
A five-course meal including coffee, ~ and VAT is ?30.
N-UNCOUNT
12.
A ~ is a religious ceremony that takes place in a church.
After the hour-long ~, his body was taken to a cemetery in the south of the city.
N-COUNT: also no det
13.
A dinner ~ or a tea ~ is a complete set of plates, cups, saucers, and other pieces of china.
...a 60-piece dinner ~.
N-COUNT: usu n N
14.
A ~s is a place beside a motorway where you can buy petrol and other things, or have a meal. (BRIT; in AM, use rest area )
They had to pull up, possibly go to a motorway ~s or somewhere like that...
= ~ station
N-COUNT
15.
In tennis, badminton, and some other sports, when it is your ~, it is your turn to serve.
She conceded just three points on her ~ during the first set.
N-COUNT: oft with poss
16.
Service is used to describe the parts of a building or structure that are used by the staff who clean, repair, or look after it, and are not usually used by the public.
He wheeled the trolley down the corridor and disappeared with it into the ~ lift.
ADJ: ADJ n
17.
If you have a vehicle or machine ~d, you arrange for someone to examine, adjust, and clean it so that it will keep working efficiently and safely.
I had had my car ~d at the local garage...
Make sure that all gas fires and central heating boilers are ~d annually.
VERB: have n V-ed, be V-ed, also V n
•
Service is also a noun.
The car needs a ~...
The company sends a ~ engineer to fix the disk drive before it fails.
N-COUNT: usu sing, oft N n
18.
If a country or organization ~s its debts, it pays the interest on them.
Almost a quarter of the country’s export earnings go to ~ a foreign debt of $29 billion.
VERB: V n
19.
If someone or something ~s an organization, a project, or a group of people, they provide it with the things that it needs in order to function properly or effectively.
Fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas will ~ our needs for some considerable time to come.
VERB: V n
20.
see also active ~ , Civil Service , community ~ , emergency ~s , in-~ , National Health Service , national ~ , public ~ , room ~
21.
To be at the ~ of a person or organization means to be available to help or be used by that person or organization.
The intellectual and moral potential of the world’s culture must be put at the ~ of politics.
PHRASE: PHR n, usu PHR after v
22.
You can use ‘at your ~’ after your name as a formal way of introducing yourself to someone and saying that you are willing to help them in any way you can.
She bowed dramatically. ‘Anastasia Krupnik, at your ~,’ she said.
CONVENTION formulae
23.
If you do someone a ~, you do something that helps or benefits them.
You are doing me a great ~, and I’m very grateful to you...
PHRASE: V inflects
24.
If a piece of equipment or type of vehicle is in ~, it is being used or is able to be used. If it is out of ~, it is not being used, usually because it is not working properly.
Cuts in funding have meant that equipment has been kept in ~ long after it should have been replaced...
PHRASE: usu PHR after v, v-link PHR
25.
If someone or something is of ~ to you, they help you or are useful to you.
That is, after all, the primary reason we live–to be of ~ to others.
PHRASE: v-link PHR, oft PHR to n