Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Deserve

De·serve′ (dē·zẽrv′), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Deserved; p. pr. & vb. n. Deserving.] [OF. deservir, desservir, to merit, L. deservire to serve zealously, be devoted to; de- + servire to serve. See Serve.] 1. To earn by service; to be worthy of (something due, either good or evil); to merit; to be entitled to; as, the laborer deserves his wages; a work of value deserves praise.

God exacteth of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth. Job xi. 6.

John Gay deserved to be a favorite. Thackeray.

Encouragement is not held out to things that deserve reprehension. Burke.

2. To serve; to treat; to benefit. [Obs.]

A man that hath So well deserved me. Massinger.

De·serve′ (dē·zẽrv′), v. i. To be worthy of recompense; — usually with ill or with well.

One man may merit or deserve of another. South.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.