deserve
/dɪˈzɜːv/ (bre, ipa) · /dɪˈzɜːrv/ (ame, ipa) · /di-ˈzərv/ (ame, mw)
deserve — verb
- deservepresent simple I / you / we / they
- deserveshe / she / it
- deservedpast simple
- deserving-ing form
1. To be entitled to receive something — whether good or bad — as a fitting result
To be entitled to receive something — whether good or bad — as a fitting result of your actions, the way you behaved, or the kind of person you are.
After working double shifts all week, Owen deserved the weekend off.
deserve + noun phrase — reward after effort
The rescue team's brave efforts deserve our full support and gratitude.
deserve + noun phrase — inanimate subject
Lien felt that the rude customer did not deserve a second chance.
Madison believes every child deserves to grow up in a safe home.
Valentina thinks the old station deserves to become a community park.
- merit
More formal than deserve; often used with abstract nouns like 'attention' or 'consideration', suggesting objective worth rather than personal entitlement.
- warrant
Emphasises strong justification for a specific response or action; more formal and narrower in use.
- earn
Focuses on the effort or work that leads to the reward; implies a more direct cause-and-effect relationship.
- be unworthy of
Formal expression meaning to lack the qualities or actions that would justify receiving something.
文法句型
deserve + noun phrase
deserve + to-infinitive
not deserve + noun phrase
用法筆記
Deserve is a stative verb and is rarely used in progressive tenses (e.g. 'is deserving' is common only as the adjective 'deserving of'). It is always followed directly by a noun phrase or a to-infinitive — never by the preposition 'of' (compare the adjective form: 'deserving of').