serve notice
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Inform someone that you plan to take a certain action
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
thông báo cho ai đó về kế hoạch thực hiện hành động nhất định
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: give formal warning
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The company will serve notice to its employees before making any changes
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “serve notice” mean?
Inform someone that you plan to take a certain action Literally: give formal warning
Is “serve notice” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.