1. To provide a certain type of food or drink inside of a particular dish, container, or vessel. Why are you serving the soup in my finest china? That's only for special occasions! Sorry, but we'll have to serve the wine in mugs, as we ran out of clean glasses.

2. To provide or present (food or drink) inside some particular thing or location. You order at the counter, and they serve your meal in a huge double-decker bus out back. We'll be serving complimentary glasses of prosecco in the lobby.

3. To complete a period of service in some company, organization, legislature, etc. He only served two years in congress before retiring. I served nearly 10 years in the head office, and they wouldn't even pay me a severance package when I was forced out.

4. To complete some length of a sentence in prison or some other correctional facility. She'll be serving at least four years in Riker's Island for her part in the robbery. They convicted that crooked CEO of embezzling nearly $2 million, and he'll only have to serve 18 months in some cushy white-collar prison.