overserve

verb

over·​serve ˌō-vər-ˈsərv 

overserved; overserving; overserves

1

transitive : to provide (someone or something) with more of a product, service, etc., than is needed or appropriate : overservice

He admitted older viewers were overserved by the BBC … .

—John Plunkett

2

transitive + intransitive : to serve too much food or drink to someone

especially : to serve too much alcohol to someone

… state authorities cited Horseshoe Casino for overserving a patron who troopers said was drunk when he caused a fatal crash later that night.

—Pat LaFleur

Police say Griffin was arrested for his own safety rather than given misdemeanor citations. A friend of Griffin's said he had been overserved, according to multiple reports.

—ESPN.com

"It's easy to take a horrific criminal act and associate it with an earlier crime," such as overserving alcohol, he [Jonathan Turley] said.

—Deanna Paul

… airlines in general benefit from serving free alcohol in part because it is a depressant that, in reasonable amounts, combines with cabin air to sedate passengers. … The trick, of course, is not to overserve, since too much booze can make people rowdy or disruptive.

—The Economist

see also overserved

Examples of overserve in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

There was the August night in Toronto when the players hung out at a local bar, perhaps a bit overserved, headed back to the hotel at 2 in the morning, when someone came up with the idea of waking up beloved third base coach Brian Butterfield. —Bob Nightengale, USA TODAY, 16 Apr. 2023

In the lawsuit, which was filed last week in Tarrant County district court, Amy Kirkland also accuses The Point on Lake Worth of overserving Donald Gruber and Peggy Cox on Aug. 7, before both left in a pickup towing a trailer. —Michael Williams, Dallas News, 7 Mar. 2023

Earlier this month, a bartender accused of overserving Molina ahead of the crash, Cala Richardson, 26, was charged with one count of sale to certain persons. —Marlene Lenthang, NBC News, 24 Feb. 2023

Officers have instructed businesses not to overserve people and not to admit people who’ve already had too much to drink. —Paighten Harkins, The Salt Lake Tribune, 8 Aug. 2022

There is a tendency to overserve the least valuable clients to the detriment of the most valuable. —Marc Emmer, Forbes, 11 Oct. 2021

Word History

First Known Use

1836, in the meaning defined at sense 1