The Collaborative International Dictionary
Subserve \Sub*serve"\, v. i. To be subservient or subordinate; to serve in an inferior capacity.
Not made to rule,
But to subserve where wisdom bears command.
--Milton.
Subserve \Sub*serve"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Subserved; p. pr. & vb. n. Subserving.] [L. subservire; sub under + servire to serve. See Serve.] To serve in subordination or instrumentally; to be subservient to; to help forward; to promote.
It is a great credit to know the ways of captivating
Nature, and making her subserve our purposes, than to
have learned all the intrigues of policy.
--Glanvill.
Wiktionary
vb. 1 To serve to promote (an end); to be useful to. 2 To assist in carrying out.
WordNet
v. be helpful or useful
Usage examples of "subserve".
We are confident, therefore, that the manner of disposing of the different subjects which are discussed in the succeeding chapters, and the course of action which is advised, will commend themselves to our readers as being such as are calculated to promote and subserve their best interests.
I cannot but think, therefore, that she had her design in choosing such a solitary place: its loveliness would subserve her intent of enthralling thoroughly heart and soul and brain of the fools she had in her toils.
Browning fell, as a hard man easily does, greatly under the influence of his second wife, and this influence was made by her to subserve the interests of a more than natural jealousy of her predecessor.
Whatever occupation you propose for my consideration must subserve these three great ends.
Her mind, overwrought by resolute contemplation of ideas beyond its scope, her gentle nature bent beneath a burden of duty to which it was unequal, and taught to consider with painful solemnity those impulses of kindness which would otherwise have been merely the simple joys of life, she had come to distrust every instinct which did not subserve the supreme purpose.
Humble as diligent disciple, he never doubted, when once a thing had taken place, that it was by his will it came to pass, but he saw that evil itself, originating with man or his deceiver, was often made to subserve the final will of the All-in-All.
Thought and behaviour patterns had to be shaped therefore to subserve this objective, to the relative disregard of any other conceivable purpose.
The only true way to live in this world, constituted just as we are, is to make all our employments subserve the one great end and aim of existence, namely, to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.
In the initiative of the individual above the average, lies the reality of the future, which the State, presenting the average, may subserve but cannot control.
He cultivated those habits of mind and body, and confined himself to the acquisition of those branches of knowledge, which, while they left his heavenly gift free and unsullied, would best subserve the exercise of it.
We have, according to the extent of the deficiency of certain articles of food, every degree of scorbutic derangement, from the most fearful depravation of the blood and the perversion of every function subserved by the blood to those slight derangements which are scarcely distinguishable from a state of health.
Liberia may have subserved all sorts of purposes, by being played off, in the hands of our oppressors, against us.
He resumed his reading and docketing by the light of the little lamp which had just subserved the purposes of a spy.
He could not see what motive of advantage to the new States could be subserved by merely keeping the public lands out of market, and preventing their settlement.
FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:--Even before I had been informed by you that this compliment was paid me by loyal citizens of Pennsylvania, friendly to me, I had inferred that you were of that portion of my countrymen who think that the best interests of the nation are to be subserved by the support of the present administration.