Library / English Dictionary

DESERVE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Be worthy or deserving

Example:

You deserve a promotion after all the hard work you have done

Synonyms:

deserve; merit

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Hypernyms (to "deserve" is one way to...):

be (have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun))

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "deserve"):

have it coming (deserve (either good or bad))

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

Jo's funny hat deserved a vote of thanks, for it was of general utility.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

“I deserve neither such praise nor such censure,” cried Elizabeth; “I am not a great reader, and I have pleasure in many things.”

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Of course I understand. He deserves all that can be done for him.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

It is as natural as that I should love those who show me affection, or submit to punishment when I feel it is deserved.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

However, they deserve a distinctive taxonomic category.

(Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition Tumor of the Mouse Mammary Gland, NCI Thesaurus/MMHCC)

My brother did not deserve her; he did not even love her.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

In addition to their well-deserved reputation as beautiful cosmic objects, comets hold vital clues about our solar system's history.

(Rosetta's 'Philae' Makes Historic First Landing on a Comet, NASA)

He did not deserve such fortune.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Now he has got his well-deserved punishment.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

These intriguing results in an animal model show that the interplay of total caloric intake and the length of feeding and fasting periods deserves a closer look.

(Longer daily fasting times improve health and longevity, National Institutes of Health)